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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ' 

Chap,...’....., Copyright No. 

Shelf„iL3<e:/^h. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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Prince William II. of Orange and Princess Marie Stuart, 

BY Vandyke, 


WITCH WINNIE 

IN HOLLAND 


BY- y/ 

ELIZABETH W. CHAMPNEY 

'f 

Author of “Witch Winnie,” “Witch Winnie’s Mystery,” 
“Witch Winnie at Versailles,” etc. 


WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS 


AUG PS 1 


NEW YORK 


DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 


PUBLISHERS 


-pZ'3 . 

, 02.(0 


Copyright, 1896, by 
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 




4*4 




I 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER. 

I. A STRANGE COAT-OF-ARMS AND A DINNER 
INVITATION, 

II. STACEY AGAIN, 

III. THE BIRTHDAY DINNER— AN UNEXPECTED 

LEAVE-TAKING 

IV. THE MYSTERIOUS PASSENGER, . 

V. ANTWERP 

VI. THE HAGUE, 

VII. A SKETCHING TOUR, 

VIII. THE STORY OF THE CALF, . . . . 

IX. HAARLEM, AMSTERDAM, AND MARKEN, . 

X. THE BOGIES OF L AREN- SOME WEIRD 
STORIES, . 

XI. CERTAIN DIFFICULTIES, 

XII. JOHN NASH APPEALS, 

XIII. PIET VAN PIETERZOON’S OPINION— HAPPY 

DAYS AT LAREN, 

XIV. A LETTER FROM AMERICA, . . 

XV. A DELFT MANDARIN AND A KIRMESSE, 


PAGE. 

1 

15 

43 

63 

84 

101 

144 

163 

197 

220 

252 

264 

280 

295 

306 





WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


CHAPTER I. 

A STRANGE COAT-OF-ARMS AND A DINNER 
INVITATION. 


INNIE had de- 
cided on a sum- 
mer’ s trip to 
Holland. Rosa 
Bonlieur had 
advised her to 
go to that country to study 
the works of Paul Potter 
and its other great cattle 
painters in the museums, 
and, above all, to study the 
cattle themselves in their lush meadows ; but 
Winnie’s vague longings had not been crystal- 
lized into determination until she had seen the 
superb Dutch exhibit at the World’s Columbian 



2 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Exposition at Chicago. To her, as to the great 
body of Americans, this exhibit was a reve- 
lation of the wonderful mastery of tone by 
the modern painters of Holland. She had been 
fascinated by Mesdag’s magical effects of sea 
and cloud and the almost visible portraiture of 
invisible wind. She had been charmed by the 
sweet home life depicted by Neuhuys and Blom- 
mers, and had felt herself thrilled by the deso- 
lation of Israel’s “Alone in the World,” and 
had revelled in the colorful technique of Jacob 
Maris. It seemed to her that the Dutch more 
than any moderns had caught tlie spirit of Art, 
but the master who most appealed to her, both 
in his feeling for color and in choice of subject, 
was Anton Mauve. 

“ If I could have studied under him,” she 
said to herself, “ I might have been a true 
artist.” 

But the high privilege of being his disciple 
could never be Winnie’s, for Mauve had died 
in 1888 . Fortunately for the world he had been 
a prolific worker, and many of his pictures 
have come to the United States. Winnie found 
them in New York, and studied eagerly his 
flocks of quiet sheep, his black firs making rich 


A STIiAJ^GB OOAT-OF-AIiMS. 


3 


darks against tke silver skies, all the gentle, 
more spiritual phases of nature, and the homely 
companionship of the peasant and his animals. 
There was real poetry in the graceful, silvery 
birches, and the hazy atmosphere surcharged 
with vapor, soft twilights and cool dawns, and 
a deep, , sympathetic interest in the human 
types — the stolid but honest peasant cutting 
wood or following the plough ; the shepherd on 
lonely moors ; laborers along the canals ; women 
spreading linen, or milking their cows, or tend- 
ing their babies, and all the quiet pathos of a 
life of endurance and sacrifice told in the stoop 
of the aged figure, even when the lines of the 
face could not be discerned. He had a marvel- 
lous sympathy and insight, not only for the life 
of his fellow-men, but for that of dumb, patient 
beasts and for the varying moods of nature. 
Winnie felt herself soothed and calmed in the 
presence of his pictures, and she told her friends 
that the same nature which had inspired Mauve 
must still exist, and she felt that she must put 
herself for a summer under its influence. 

Mauve had painted last and longest at Laren, 
a little village near Amsterdam. There was an 
art colony here, and Winnie called a council of 


4 WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 

lier friends. Adelaide begged to be excused. 
She had married Professor Waite, and did not 
care to go. Tib was willing, but impecunious ; 
but Mrs. Pose veldt had decided to make one of 
her semi-occasional trips to Paris, and agreed 
to first take Milly and Winnie to Laren and 
view the landscap o’er, to see whether it was 
X)ractical to leave the girls there for the summer. 

The days before their sailing were very full 
and busy, but Winnie found time to make a 
little visit with Mrs. Van Silver at the old manor 
house on the Hudson. Fortune had turned 
her wheel in the wrong direction for the Van 
Silvers. Their money had been swept away in 
the last financial crisis, and Van, who had stud- 
ied medicine solely for pleasure, and with the 
intention of practising solely among the poor 
and without recompense, had hung out his 
shingle” at the gate lodge, which had been con- 
verted into an office, and had begun the ardu- 
ous life of a country doctor, glad to receive the 
scant fee after a day or night of physical toil 
and mental stress. All had gone but the old 
manor, which had been in the Yan Silver family 
for five generations. If they could only man- 
age to keep that ! Winnie and Van had been 


A SI'JiAJVGE! COAT OF-Amm 


5 


engaged for two years, but he would not ask 
her to marry him just now, when he had so little 
to olfer, and the future was all dark, and Win- 
nie would not have added a feather’s weight to 
his cares and responsibilities ; so there was 
nothing for the two young people to do but to 
wait patiently for better times — yes, and to 
keep up their courage and affection, and work 
hard in the interim. Yan would have liked to 
pursue his studies in certain specialties still 
further in some European university, but that 
for the present was as impossible as mar- 
riage ; but Winnie had earned a little fund of 
her own, and she could think of no better way 
of investing it than to make herself a more 
skilled artist. She talked her plans over Avith 
Mrs. Yan Silv^er as they sat together in the large 
old-fashioned library overlooking the Hudson. 

The Yan Silvers came originally from Hol- 
land,” said that lady musingly. ‘‘ I wish we 
had kept up communication Avith our Hutch 
cousins ; they might be able to tender you hos- 
X)itality or to be of some service to you.” 

What do you know of them ?” Winnie 
asked. Who knows but I may run across 
them in my journey ?” 


6 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


It is not likely, and even if you did, I am 
afraid you could not identify them or bring our 
American branch of the family to their remem- 
brance. You see, our emigrating ancestor, Cor- 
nelis Yan Silver, came over so very long ago 
that the Dutch relatives have probably no rec- 
ord of his existence. Another curious circum- 
stance is that we are told that, although the 
Van part is certainly Dutch, no such name as 
Yan Silver exists in Holland. My husbaud 
made his genealogy a study, and set experts 
to work to trace the family, but they failed 
utterly.’’ 

AVinnie was much interested. It sometimes 
happens,” she said, that one blunders into a 
discovery which has eluded the most system- 
atic search. Have you any clew other than 
the prefix Yan to lead you to believe that the 
family were Dutch ?” 

The Christian name Cornelis of our first 
American ancestor is Dutch, and the few arti- 
cles which have come down to us as originally 
belonging to him are certainly Dutch. The 
most valuable is that old upright clock ; the 
case is of the finest Holland marquetry, an inlay 
of different colored woods, with a decorative 


A STBAjVGB aOA7^-OF-ARMS. 


7 


design of tulips. On the face you see painted 
the family coat*of-arms. ” 

Winnie laughed. ‘ ‘ I have noticed that paint- 
ing a great many times, but I always supposed 
it was a representation of the cow jumping over 
the moon.” 

‘‘ It is grotesque enough. The crest is a calf, 
‘passant,’ walking or gambolling awkwardly. 
The device on the shield is a tree ‘ eradicated ’ 
— that is, torn up by the roots, and the motto 
in Latin is nonsensical enough : ‘ A grove can 
be transplanted, but cannot be hewn down.’ 
There is no such coat-of-arms to be found in 
any of the books of heraldry which my hus- 
band consulted, and he gave years of study to 
the matter, making it quite a fad.” 

Winnie made a careful water-color study of 
the device. “You said that there were some 
other heirlooms left by Cornells Yan Silver ?” 

“ Yes ; a bundle of old, yellow papers in 
Dutch. One of them appears to be the diploma 
of the University of Leyden, given to one Dirk 
Yan Pieterzoon ; but I don’t see what that has 
to do with us.” 

“ He was probably a relative. I should have 
thought your husband would have inquired for 


8 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


the Van Pieterzoons of Leyden, or had search 
made in the records of the university.” 

“ This bundle of papers we found in the clock 
after my husband’s death, or he might have 
gained some hint from them. The others seem 
to be only a fragment of a diary, some deeds of 
sale, and a will, all of the Pieterzoon family — 
no trace of the name Yan Silver anywhere.” 

‘‘ Never mind ; if you will lend them to me 
I will promise to be very careful of them, and 
I may discover something to ycmr advantage.” 

I am not so anxious to discover my rela- 
tives, now that we have lost our fortune, as my 
dear husband was. He had a feeling that his 
Holland kinsfolk were sure to be poor, and 
that he might be able to do something for them ; 
but that is no longer possible. We do not care 
to make ourselves known to wealthy relatives, 
who might think that we wished to hang upon 
them, and we are not so situated as to be able 
to give ourselves the luxury of helping 
others.” 

‘‘But that is sure to come,” Winnie said 
cheerfully. “ And now, dear, dear Mrs. Yan 
Silver, good-by, for you know I am to spend 
to-night with Milly Roseveldt at her home in 


A STBANOE COAT-OF-ARMS. 


9 


New York. You must not think of com- 
ing down to the city to-morrow to see us 
off.” 

Yan will do it for me,” said the other, as 
she gave Winnie a most motherly embrace. 
The two had learned to love each other very 
dearly, for Mrs. Van Silver’s prejudice and jeal- 
ousy had been completely overcome, and the 
motherless girl had found in her just the sym- 
pathetic and experienced counsellor that she 
needed. Winnie’s erratic father had gone West, 
again absorbed in some enterprise sure to 
give them fame and fortune,” and Winnie had 
only the Van Silvers and her girl friends. 
Dearest of these was Milly Rose veldt, with 
whom she was now going abroad. 

Yan accompanied her to the steps of the 
Rose veldt mansion. He would call again later 
to escort her to a dinner party, to which they 
were both invited, and he would spend the 
night at his club, as he wished to be at the 
dock to witness the sailing of the steamer at 
noon the next day. Milly had caught sight of 
her friend as she came up the steps, and herself 
ran to open the door before Winnie had time 
to ring. 


10 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


‘‘You darling, where are your trunks ? And 
why didn’t Van come in ?” 

“ My baggage has all been sent to the steamer. 
I thought you could lend me some sort of a 
gown to wear to Mrs. Fitz-Simmons’s dinner, 
and you will see Yan there ; he had business 
to attend to in the mean time.” 

Milly made a little wry face. “ But I am 
not going to the dinner.” 

“ N'ot going to Mrs. Fitz-Simmons’s dinner !” 
exclaimed Mrs. Roseveldt, who descended the 
hall stairs to welcome Winnie. “ But, my 
dear, I told you that I had accepted the invita- 
tion for you.” 

“ But you had no right to do so,” Milly re- 
plied hotly. “ Listen, Winnie ; it came while 
I was away, and mamma, instead of consulting 
me, coolly promised that I would go.” 

“ Yes, my dear, and it is quite too late now 
to change your mind ; it would make yonr 
hostess no end of trouble, besides being a very 
insulting thing to do. Mrs. Fitz- Simmons has 
been very courteous to me the past winter, and 
I want to leave with pleasant relations between 
us.” 

“ But under the circumstances, mamma, 


A STRANGE COAT-OF-ARMS. 


11 


when you know that Stacey and I are not on 
speaking terms, how could you ? — how can I ?” 

‘‘ Stacey is in Harvard, and whatever may be 
your quarrel with him, you have none with his 
mother, and it should make no difference in 
your attitude toward her. I should say that it 
ought to make all the difference in the world ; 
you should be all the more scrupulously punc- 
tiliously polite. She invited your father and 
me as well, and I explained that as it was the 
night before our sailing I had much to attend 
to, and must not overfatigue myself, but that 
you would certainly represent us all. ” 

Milly shrugged her shoulders. ‘‘ You are a 
very clever manager, mamma ; and now you 
may write your very cleverest note of apology 
to wriggle out of this nice little trap, for I am 
not going.” 

Mrs. Hoseveldt opened her lips to make some 
reply, but Winnie placed one hand upon them 
and wound her other arm around Milly’s waist. 
“ Take me upstairs, and get me up in your 
best war-paint and feathers,” she said, ‘‘fori 
am going, and expect to have a particularly 
good time.” 

“ My party dresses are all done up in bags in 


12 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


this closet,” said Milly, ‘‘ for I did not care to 
take them abroad this time, as we are going 
for serious work. Let me see — ” consulting 
the labels pinned on the bags. ‘ ‘ This white 
brocade powdered with tiny forget-me-nots will 
make yon look just like a little shepherdess in 
Dresden porcelain. See, it has babj^-blue shoul- 
der-knots, and is all a-fluff of chiffon about the 
neck. I haven’t worn it since I was at South- 
ampton.” 

Winnie remembered the last occasion on 
which Milly had worn it, and had no doubt 
that Stacey did too. ‘‘No, dear, that’s too 
infantine for me. Haven’t you something a 
little more in my style ? I wish I had brought 
my old black lace gown. My red hair is so 
noisy that I have to be very careful of what 
colors I put near it.” 

“I never wear black,” said Milly, “but 
mamma does. There is a black satin dress of 
hers here with a jet bertha ; the skirt is per- 
fectly plain. You will look magnificently in 
that.” 

“ By the way, Milly,” Winnie remarked, 
with assumed carelessness, “ I have heard very 
good news of Stacey. They say he has devel- 


4 COAT OF-AHMS. 


13 


oped into a regular grind, and is likely to grad- 
uate next summer cum laude^ possibly magna 
cum laude. Only think of that !” 

‘‘ If he does, I shall feel certain that it is on 
account of some trickery, and that he does not 
deserve it.” 

JSTow, Milly, that is very hateful and un- 
just in you. Yan says that Stacey has always 
been the soul of honor, both before and since 
that summer at Shinnecock, and he cannot un- 
derstand how he could have allowed another 
man’s work to pass as his own, unless it was 
done as a joke, or possibly for another reason. ” 
“ What was that ? It was no joke, I am sure.” 

Oh, you are not interested, and I don’t 
know why we should discuss Stacey.” 

I would like to know what Van has to say 
in his favor, for he knew him well.” 

‘‘Van says that it is possible that Stacey was 
so blinded by his love for you that he tempo- 
rarily forgot the difference between right and 
wrong. He says men have been known to have 
their judgments affected that way, and even to 
go insane in wildly trying to please some one 
of whom they were very fund.” 

In her heart Milly believed that this was the 


14 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


true reason, and she replied, as she told herself 
many times : “ If I exercised such an evil in- 
fluence over Stacey, it was well that it should 
come to an end at once.” 

‘‘You did give him just the rebuke he need- 
ed, and apparently it had a good effect upon 
him ; but you are not called upon to visit this 
sort of discipline on his mother. Really, Milly, 
now that everything is ended between you, it 
seems to me very childish in you to be uncivil 
to Mrs. Fitz-Simmons, from whom you accepted 
so much hospitality. It looks a little, my dear, 
like pique ; and, of course, I know it is not so. 
Others, and especially Mrs. Fitz-Simmons her- 
self, might argue from it that you still cared 
for Stacey.” 

A brilliant red spot burned on each of Milly’ s 
cheeks. “ If I thought that my staying away 
would be construed in that light, I should cer- 
tainly go. ” 


CHAPTER II. 


5TACEY AGAIN. 


'RS. COMMODORE 
FITZ-SIMMONS 
was very unhappy. 
Her little scheme, 
which she had 
planned so astutely 
and carried out with so 
much tact that summer 
at Southampton, had 
not worked well, though 
it had opened so prom- 
isingly. At that time Mrs. Fitz-Simmons was 
sure that Milly Rose veldt had been the par- 
ticular star of her son’s adoration ever since he 
had been a boy at the Cadet School, and that 
no one had supplanted her in his two years of 
Harvard life. How his eyes had kindled when 
she had casually proposed inviting Milly to 
their cottage for a two weeks’ visit in that vaca- 



16 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


tion between his Sophomore and Junior year ! 
It was a bit of diplomacy on Mrs. Fitz- Sim- 
mons’s part, for she wished to study Milly criti- 
cally close at hand before giving her tacit con- 
sent to the trend matters seemed to be taking. 
And her consent had been given so willingly ; 
for who could help loving sunny Milly, a beam 
of sunshine through and through, from her 
golden hair, with the light tangled in its fluffy 
meshes, to her rippling laugh, which affected 
one like a sudden sunburst on a gloomy day ? 
And Mrs. Fitz Simmons, with a vision intensi- 
fled by love, had studied the girl mercilessly, 
and had found no fault in her. Milly’ s mother 
had joined her, as we remember, and together 
they had taken one of the quaint little cottages 
at the Shinnecock Art Village ; and all that 
summer Stacey had been her devoted slave. 
Milly, too, had grown to love Stacey. Mrs. 
Fitz-Simmons had rejoiced to recognize this, 
even before that morning of the storm when 
Stacey had brought her home wet through with 
the surf and spray, and they had told her what 
they fancied was their secret — a secret for which 
she had planned and striven for months. And 
then, suddenly, just as she had fancied that 


STACEY AGAIN. 


17 


everything was satisfactorily settled and that 
the young people were entering on a long but 
happy engagement, Stacey had stalked into the 
house with gloom upon his brow and bitter- 
ness in his heart, and had announced that every- 
thing was over between them. Ask me no 
questions,” he had said, and never, never 
mention Milly Roseveldt’s name to me again.” 

This was at the time of the autumn breaking- 
up of the summer sketching school. Milly had 
made her farewell call on Mrs. Fitz- Simmons 
two days before ; but then she had been all 
gayety and affection — no hint of this lovers’ 
quarrel, and Mrs. Fitz-Simmons ordered her 
victoria, and drove at once to the Art Village, 
only to find the cottage closed and its occupants 
gone. She did not give up hope even then, but 
wrote Milly to her city address, making an elo- 
quent plea for her son, and closing with the 
words : ‘‘ I do not know what he has done that 
has displeased you, but I beg of you to forgive 
him, for he loves you with all his heart, and is 
very miserable.” And Milly had replied : 

“ I can well believe that your son knew noth- 
ing of your writing me, as an explanation is 


18 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


the last thing which he could have wished. 
Since he has not chosen to tell you the reason 
of our parting, I will not, though it seems to 
me quite of a piece with his conduct through- 
out this entire miserable business that he does 
not allow me to justify myself with you. It 
has all been a mistake, dear Mrs. Fitz-Simmons 
— I have been mistaken in Stacey, and he in 
me. We are young, and I dare say we shall 
both get over it, and be very thankful that we 
understood one another before it was too late. 
I am so sorry that we ever thought we knew 
one another and exercised so unhappy an influ- 
ence on each other’s lives. You have been so 
sweet and good to me that it pains me to give 
you pain. Forgive me, and believe me, 

Ever lovingly and regretfully yours, 
Mflly Roseveldt.’ 

Mrs. Fitz-Simmons read and reread this letter, 
and grew more and more perplexed and angry. 

She seems to imply something dishonorable 
on Stacey’s part,” she thought, in great indig- 
nation. This cannot be. Some one has been 
circulating malicious stories, and she is jealous. 
I will ask Stacey.” 


STACET AGAIN. 


19 


But this was not easy. To all of his mother’s 
questionings Stacey replied : ‘‘ Please, mother, 
say no more about it. There is no misunder- 
standing. I have transgressed Miss Boseveldfc’s 
ideas of right, and she will never forgive me. 
John Nash, my man— you remember him— had 
a great deal of talent, but I could not make him 
join the class and submit his paintings to Mr. 
Chase ; he was so sensitive that he would not 
do so, though he was anxious for criticism. 
Finally, I let him send them in as mine, with 
the understanding that the secret should be 
proclaimed at the last meeting of the class. 
John would not let me tell any one, not even 
Milly, and she admired John’s paintings and 
thought me a genius. That was the only reason 
she imagined she cared for me. But I could 
not paint ; I told everybody so the last day at 
the exhibition. It was a good joke on some of 
the art critics. It did me good to see the sen- 
sation it raised. They had been bowing down 
and worshipping the studies and sketches when 
they thought I did them, and‘ they could not 
quite take back their own rhapsodies on the 
very day that they were uttered ; but if John 
had not bundled up his canvases then and there 


20 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


and left the village, he would have found a de- 
cided change in opinion as to the merit of his 
paintings. I hate hypocrisy and toadyism and 
cant, and the consternation on the faces of some 
of those connoisseurs was delicious. I planned 
that scene from the first, and looked forward to 
to it.” 

And was Milly Roseveldt at the studio at 
the time of the denouement f Was this the 
reason she gave for giving you up ?” 

No, she was not there, and she gave me no 
reason, as I have told you, except the general 
one that, on more intimate acquaintance, she 
had sized me up, and come to the conclusion 
that I would not do. And now, mother, for 
the twentieth time, I beg of you do not speak 
of her again. It only hurts me, and it’s of no 
use — it’s of no use.” 

Mrs. Fitz- Simmons saw that this was true, 
and she threw her arms about her son’s neck 
and kissed him again and again. I won’t 
desert you, Stacey,” she said, whatever hap- 
pens. Don’t let this spoil your life. She isn’t 
worthy of you.” 

‘‘ Oh, isn’t she ?” said Stacey bitterly. Miss 
Roseveldt thinks differently. I’m not worthy 


STACEY AGAIN. 


21 


to servre her as a door-mat, according to her 
opinion. It’s a comfort to think that every 
one may not feel as she does. No, Im not 
going to spoil my life for her. She may be 
sorry for this, one of these days. I’ll show her 
that I can amount to something without her, 
and be moderately happy too.” 

There was a tone in Stacey’s voice that Mrs. 
Fitz- Simmons did not quite like ; but she busied 
herself in getting him off to college, vainly hop- 
ing that absorption in his work would set every- 
thing right. 

How strange that Milly’s influence over him 
had not been for good ! But Stacey had 
changed during that summer, and not for the 
better. What had he done that had shocked 
Milly ? Mrs. Fitz- Simmons could not believe 
that it was only the matter of the sketches, 
and her mind clung to the idea of jealousy as 
being Milly’s motive. “ She loves him still,” 
she reasoned. Some girl has done this mis- 
chief.” It was impossible, however, for her to 
satisfy herself on this point. The summer was 
ended, the class had broken up, and Mrs. Fitz- 
simmons herself flitted from Southampton and 
joined the commodore at a foreign naval station. 


22 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Stact^y’s letters were few and far between, 
and she did not gather from them that he was 
too much preoccupied by his studies to excuse 
his remissness in writing. She could not make 
him out, and she was vaguely uneasy. If only 
he had been more confiding, more communica- 
tive, but he was as close as an oyster. Some- 
times a cynical remark showed that he was not 
happy, that nothing was worth striving for. 
When she hinted her fears to the commodore, 
he pooh-poohed them. “ Baby love— calf dis- 
appointment-puppy philosophy— a boy of 
twenty ! He has lived through the measles, 
and he'll get through all this. It’s a part of 
the teething process.” 

Mrs. Fitz-Simmons did not retort that there 
was more than one way of getting through in- 
fantine disorders, and that even measles had 
been known to have fatal results where the 
patient had not had proper care. She longed 
for her boy in his heartache and unrest, but 
she was married to the old commodore, not to 
Stacey, and the “ whither thou goest I will go” 
had been pledged to her husband, not to her 
son. The boy must fight out his own battles. 

There was too much good stuff in Stacey, 



(From ])aiiiting by Th. de Bock.) 






STAGEY AGAIN. 


23 


too, for him to go utterly to the dogs, even in 
his misery. It was a part of his punishment 
that he recognized that Milly had right on her 
side. He had done wrong, he could only honor 
her high sense of right, and yet she might have 
forgiven him. If she had really loved him, he 
believed she would have done so. He was not 
as thoroughly bad in character as she believed 
him to be. He would show her yet— and yet 
would she ever believe or care if ever she came 
to know that she had been mistaken in him ? 
Was it worth the effort ? Was anything worth 
while now 1 His unhappiness made answer. 
No ; but he kept steadily on, from mere force 
of habit. Habit takes the wheel sometimes in 
crucial moments, when the helmsman Reason 
is stricken down, and the great shiiD of charac- 
ter ploughs evenly along as though nothing had 
happened. The marks at the midyear’s exami- 
nation were good, there was no announcement 
of debt or request for extra money, and the old 
commodore pointed triumphantly to these in- 
contestable facts as arguments that Stacey was 
all right. 

The young man spent his vacation between 
his Junior and Senior year on a yachting cruise 


24 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


with some friends, for his father and mother 
did not return to the United States until the 
following winter. The commodore was on 
leave, and they took a house in New York for 
the remainder of the season, that on which our 
story opens. Mrs. Fitz-Simmons was eager to 
have her son with her. He had run on from 
Cambridge and had met the ship on their ar- 
rival, but could not remain long, and they had 
no opportunity for confidences until a visit 
which he made her after the miayear examina- 
tions. 

It was Stacey’s coming of age, and Mrs. Fitz- 
Simmons had sent for him to spend his birth- 
day at home. She had wished to give him a 
dance, but to this he had strenuously objected. 

I want my little mother,” he had written, 
“ but I shall fiy the house if I find any other 
feminine fiub-dub there.” Mrs. Fitz-Simmons 
reflected on the ill success of her house party, 
and compromised by agreeing to invite a few 
of Stacey’s men friends to dinner. She flew 
into his arms with ecstasy at the station, and 
was delighted to find that he had brought her 
a bunch of Mermet roses all the way from Bos- 
ton. You see,” he said, as he gave them, 


STAGEY AGAIN. 


25 


I remembered your pet flowers.” The poor 
things hung their heads in a very dejected and 
wilted condition. He could have bought flne 
specimens just around the corner from her own 
door, and he had forgotten that her favorite 
rose was the American Beauty. It was Milly 
who liked Mermets. 

Stacey admired American Beauties too — they 
were the true Harvard color — but from long 
training in sending roses to Milly, he had come 
to take it for granted that all women liked Mer- 
mets, and only Mermets. 

Mrs. Fitz-Simmons was relieved to see that 
he was looking flnely. He had seemed to her, 
on their flrst meeting, older and graver, as suit- 
ed with a reverend senior and a young man 
now his own master, but he had not grown 
thin, and there was no evidence of mel- 
ancholia or mental aberration. She fancied 
they would have so much to talk about, and 
had rattled on inconsequently, as they drove 
home from the station, but it struck her that 
Stacey, although respectfully attentive, was 
not deeply interested. His father was in Wash- 
ington, and Mrs. Fitz-Simmons read the com- 
modore’s last letter, which conveyed the news 


36 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


that he might soon be ordered abroad, and if 
so would like to have his wife and Stacey join 
him in Europe after the latter’s graduation. 
Stacey showed no enthusiasm over the pros- 
pect, and his mother could see that he was still 
unhappy, listless, and at odds with life. But 
Stacey, although affectionate, was uncommu- 
nicative. He talked with her at dinner about 
his studies, his views on determinism as de- 
duced from philosophy, and on the best way 
to help the lower classes, as discussed in his 
class of social economics. 

Mrs. Fitz- Simmons made a pretty gesture of 
despair. ‘‘ Don’ t lecture me on such subjects, ” 
she said. If you have taken up philanthropy 
as a fad, let Winnie De Witt expound her home 
for poor children to you. She makes herself a 
positive pestilence — talks every one to death on 
the subject. Such a pity, for she is really a 
very taking girl. ” 

Stacey winced, and turned the conversation 
to decadent literature ; but here he found his 
mother still less informed. She yawned behind 
her napkin, and he felt a little disappointed, 
for it seemed to him that there were few sub- 
jects on which they were sympathetic, while she 


STAGEY AGAIN. 


27 


was longing for his confidence. That evening, 
as they were sitting cozily together beside the 
library fire, she boldly opened the attack. 

Let me see, this is Thursday evening. To- 
morrow, Friday, is your birthday ; and must 
you really go back on Saturday evening? It 
gives such a short time. ” 

That is true,” Stacey replied, but I have 
promised to hear a friend of mine preach on 
Sunday — he’s a divinity student, awfully in 
earnest, and roped me in before I knew what I 
was about ; but to-morrow and next day my 
time is all yours Parcel it out to suit your- 
self. I will do anything you want — anything, 
except to drop in at afternoon teas.” 

I have nothing for you except the dinner 
to-morrow evening, and the theatre party after- 
ward.” 

‘ ^ Theatre party ! That is a pleasant surprise. 
What play have you chosen, and what men 
have you invited?” 

Mrs. Fitz Simmons ignored the question for 
the moment. And, I had almost forgotten, 
on Saturday the Roseveldts sail for Europe, 
and I thought you would like to drive down to 
the wharf with me and see them off.” 


28 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


On no conditions,” Stacey replied quickly. 

Nothing would induce me to do such a thing 
after the way Milly has treated me.” 

Mrs. Fitz- Simmons coughed. ‘‘ Mrs. Rose- 
veldt and I have seen a good deal of each other 
this winter, and she has been very polite. Did 
I write you that I attended a duplicate whist 
party at her house last month 'i I really owe 
her some attention. She sent me a p. p. c. card, 
too. I really think the least we can do — ” 

‘‘ Do what you like for yourself, mother, but 
don’t count me in.” 

‘^Just as you like, but they will certainly 
think it very odd, now that they know you are 
in the city.” 

“ How do they know it 
Well, one thing led to another in a very 
natural way. Yon know we had intended to 
have only men at your dinner, but when I in- 
vited Mr. Van Silver, who was down on the list 
you sent me, he replied that he must leave 
early, as he was to take his fiancee^ Miss De 
Witt (I presume you know their engagement is 
announced), to see Irving and Terry that even- 
ing. That put the idea into my head of taking 
a box for the same performance, and all ad- 


STACEY AGAIN. 


29 


journing from the table to the theatre. Then 
it struck me that it was really rude to Miss De 
Witt not to include her in the dinner invitation, 
too, especially as you were so intimate at South- 
ampton, and so—” 

‘‘ And so you have invited girls to my din- 
ner, after what I wrote you !” 

‘‘ Yes, dear ; but don’t you see I could not 
help it 

Stacey groaned. Milly will take it as a 
direct insult that I have left her out, and I am 
sure I would not have her feel that 1 wished to 
take such a little, mean, spiteful revenge.” 

‘‘ She will feel nothing of the sort, for, of 
course, I invited her, too, for Miss De Witt is 
visiting at her house.” 

Stacey sprang to his feet and paced the room. 

Of course she refused,” he said, as he sat 
down again. 

I have received no refusal,” Mrs. Fitz- Sim- 
mons remarked dryly. 

‘‘ Worse yet if she has taken no notice of it.” 

Mrs. Roseveldt replied for her daughter 
that Milly was away visiting her friend, Mrs. 
Professor Waite, nee Adelaide Armstrong ; that 
she expected her to return on Friday, and” — 


30 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


there was a spice of triumph in Mrs. Fitz- Sim- 
mons’s voice— she had no doubt her daughter 
would be delighted to attend, and she had no 
hesitation in accepting for her !” 

‘‘ That only proves that Mrs. Rose veldt knows 
nothing about it. Milly will not come.” 

All the same, I dare not invite any other 
girl in her place, and you will have to hold 
yourself free to act as her escort.” 

Stacey laughed. ‘‘ I am content to be free 
and unattached. My services will not be re- 
quired.” 

“ Are you in earnest, Stacey ? Have you no 
confidences for me, no photograph of some nice 
girl to show me ?” And Stacey replied with 
unmistakable frankness : “You are my only 
love, mother. There never will be any other 
nice girl for me. Since that summer at South- 
ampton I have become a woman-hater.” 

“ I wish you would tell me just what or who 
it was that made that trouble between you,” 
Mrs. Fitz- Simmons persisted. I have always 
been sure that, if the whole truth were known, 
Milly was not to blame. ” 

“ I never blamed her ; the fault all lay with 
one individual — that fool, Stacey Fitz-Simmons. 


STACEY AGAIN. 


31 


It was he who made all the trouble and who 
has had to bear it ’ and Stacey’s mother 
caught an expression of pain flash across his 
features, which told that he was not as indiffer- 
ent as he had seemed. With a persistent belief 
in the infallibility of her own intuitions, Mrs. 
Fitz- Simmons was still convinced that some 
woman had made the trouble between Milly 
and Stacey. That Stacey blamed only himself 
merely showed how chivalrous he was. And 
then, of course, he must have been partly to 
blame. But whoever this marplot was, Mrs. 
Fitz- Simmons was certain that Stacey bitterly 
regretted any attention he had ever shown her, 
and that he had not seen her since that summer 
or desired ever to see her again. 

‘‘ She is well out of the way, at any rate,” 
Mrs. Fitz- Simmons mused with satisfaction. 
“ Now, if I can only manage this meeting with 
Milly before she sails, I think I might almost 
hope for a reconciliation.” 

Early the next morning, as Mrs. Fitz-Sim- 
mons was arranging some birthday gifts at 
Stacey’s plate, at the breakfast -table, the foot- 
man handed her a special delivery letter for 
him. Mrs. Fitz- Simmons regarded it with some 


32 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


curiosity. It was a girl’s hand, that she de- 
cided at once, for the immature, awkward script 
was fine and delicate. The envelope was cheap 
and unfashionable, the postmark, of all places 
in the world, Hoboken. Who could be writing 
her son from that plebeian region ? Some one 
well informed as to his movements, since his 
coming to New York had been hastily decided 
upon. 

Mrs. Fitz- Simmons’s curiosity deepened as 
she turned the letter over, and a temptation of 
the Evil One glided into her mind as she no- 
ticed that it was not sealed. A little careful 
fingering and the envelope was open. Should 
she read the letter ? She ran up to her own 
room with it and locked the door. That very 
action meant that she had decided, and with 
the feeling that she was doing an unworthy 
thing she devoured the missive. It ran as fol- 
lows : 

“ Hoboken. 

Dear Old Fellow : I saw you yesterday in 
the station just as I got into New York. I was 
feeling awfully lonely, and wondering whether 
there was any one I knew in the whole city, 
when I caught sight of your back. You must 


STACEY AGAIN. 


33 


have been in the Pullman ahead of my car, and 
I never knew it. Just my luck ! But I knew 
your back. That overcoat with the fur collar 
was too familiar for me to mistake it, and I 
made a dash for you. You had a dress -suit 
case and a swell stick in one hand, and a hat- 
box and a bunch of roses in the other. ‘ Just 
like him,’ I said to myself. ‘ Who is the 
girl ? ’ Then I ran after you as fast as I could ; 
but it was of no use. She was there, waiting 
for you, among the first of the crowd, and it 
would have done any one (who wasn’t jealous) 
good to see the way you dropped that hat-box, 
not minding that it flew open and that your 
collars were all scattered about, while you gath- 
ered that little woman into your arms and kissed 
her until her cheeks were as red as the velvet 
around her throat. 

Of course I couldn’t interrupt a touching 
scene like that ; so I waited while a footman in 
livery picked up your collars, and you handed 
him the hat-box, without noticing that I stood 
just behind, and then skipped after the little 
lady into an aristocratic carriage and drove away. 
I was angry then when it was too late. But I 
wasn’t going to lose you that way ; so I jumped 


34 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


into a hansom and yelled to the driver to fol- 
low that carriage. Away we tore. You led 
me a chase, but we kept you in sight, and we 
turned off Fifth Avenue just as you and the 
pretty woman were going up the steps of a 
handsome mansion together. 

‘‘ I made a note of the number, and saw by 
the Fitz- Simmons on the door-plate that it was 
your father’s house. I was baffled again, for I 
knew you would not want to introduce me to 
your folks, and so I didn’ t leave a card or even 
pull the bell. I hope you’ll give me credit for 
so much consideration of your feelings. But I 
hadn’t taken all that trouble to find you just 
to lose you again, and that’s why I have writ- 
ten. If you are the same fellow that I used to 
know, you will come to see me. I am to be at 
Meyer’s Hotel until Saturday, when I sail for 
Antwerp on the Noordland. You will be glad 
to hear that, I know. You were awfully good 
to me, and I loved you more than any girl ever 
did or ever will love you. You made me for- 
get the difference in our stations in life. You 
thought you did me a wrong, but you didn’t 
mean to, and I would never have told. I heard 
afterward it made trouble with you and Miss 


STAGEY AGAIN. 


35 


Roseveldt, and I wondered whether you hated 
me for it. I was really sorry, though I never 
liked her. Jealous again, I suppose. I know 
you liked me, and we had some happy times 
together until it was all found out. I wonder 
if we could ever be the same to one another 
again that we were that summer in Shinnecock. 
I used to think we might, over in Europe, in 
some out-of-the-way corner, where society 
wouldn’t be watching your associates. I shall 
stay over there several years, and if you should 
decide to cross you must let me know. Come 
and see me anyway before I sail, or I’ll not 
promise not to appear at your house, for I can’ t 
go away without a word from you, Stacey. 

‘‘ Always gratefully yours, 

‘‘ J. Nash.” 

Mrs. Fitz-Simmons was petrified. This, then, 
was the girl who by her own confession had 
caused the trouble between Milly and Stacey. 
An uneducated, common girl of the notion- 
counter order, of whose acquaintanceship Stacey 
was ashamed. That he was to blame, Stacey 
had admitted and this letter proved, and now, 
after nearly two years, the girl had crossed his 


36 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


path again. Mrs. Fitz- Simmons stepped for- 
ward to drop the letter in the fire which burned 
in the grate, and then she hesitated, not as 
when she read the letter, from any feeling that 
she had not a right to do this thing— surely if 
she saw a serpent menacing her son, she would 
not wait to ask his permission to kill it — but 
she could not believe the evidence of her senses. 
This threat of appearing in her house, this boast 
of intimacy must be all a lie, which Stacey 
would indignantly resent, or a joke which he 
would laughingly explain. She could not de- 
stroy the letter and let the doubt eat into her 
heart like a canker ; she must have Stacey’ s re- 
assurance that there was nothing in it. And 
yet she could not bring herself to confess to 
him that she had read the letter, and to ask 
him to tell her what it meant. She stood for a 
moment uncertain, and then she sealed it very 
carefully. “ I will watch his expression while 
he reads it,” she said to herself, ‘‘ and it will 
tell me all I want to know.” 

She returned to the dining-room, placed the 
letter under his plate, and seated herself behind 
the coffee-urn. Stacey entered the room in a 
few moments, kissed her, and took his seat 


STACEY AGAIN. 


Z1 

opposite. He noticed the presents at once. 
‘‘ What, another pipe, little mother, when I 
have ten already ? You confirm me in my bad 
habits. That pearl-inlaid pipe-rack and the 
nargileh you sent me from Damascus are the 
envy of all the fellows. By the way, did I 
send you the jingle I wrote about my collection 
for the Lampoon 

‘‘No, dear ; do you remember how it ran ? 
Have you it with you ? Could you run upstairs 
and get it ?” 

Now that she had left the letter, Mrs. Fitz- 
simmons was in a fever to get it again and de- 
stroy it. 

“ No, I haven’t it with me, but I think I can 
partly remember it. You know I like my brier 
the best of all my pipes, and the jingle ran 
something in this way : 

“ ‘ Oh, flower of the brier, 

With your heart all on Are, 

How soothing the spell you evoke 1 
Of all pipes in my rack. 

And I have a good stack, 

You are the pipe that I smoke. 

“ ‘ My meerschaum’s brown bowl 
Suggests a stained soul. 

And I’m not fond of sermons myself. 


38 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Of my Delft porcelain 
I’m uncommonly vain, 

But the Dutchman’s pipe rests on the shelf. 

“ ‘ My corn-cob and clay, 

Too plebeian are they. 

And my calumet’s only for show, 

But my flower of the brier. 

With its heart all on fire. 

Goes with me wherever I go. ’ 

‘‘This is the longest fellow I ever saw; it 
beats my Turkish chibouk. Is it a Heidelberg 
studenten pipe 

“ It is Tyrolean/’ Mrs. Fitz-Simmons replied ; 
“ the little ornament at the base of the deco- 
rated bowl is of chamois horn.” 

Stacey laid aside the pipe and took up a 
small bank-book. “ What is this, mother — 

five hundred dollars to my credit at the 

National Bank V ’ 

“Yes, dear ; you are of age, and this is a 
little money of my own which I have put abso- 
lutely at your disposal. Your father, as you 
know, will explain how he has invested the 
large amount which he has set aside as your 
property. It is drawing a very good interest, 
but he thinks you should use only the same 


STACEY AGAIN, 


39 


amount which he has always given you as 
an allowance, and let the balance accumulate 
until you wish to invest it in some business ; 
so that, although you really come into consid- 
erable property to-day, your income in the way 
of ready money is not increased— that is, if you 
wish to please your father by taking his ad- 
vice. ” 

‘‘ Certainly, mother ; my allowance has al- 
ways been sufficient, and I am sure no reason- 
able young man ought to spend more on him- 
self.” 

That may be quite true, but young men 
are not always reasonable or good managers, 
and I thought this little fund, on which you 
could draw whenever you liked, might come in 
well this last year to pay any debts you may 
have contracted during your college course.” 

‘‘I have no debts, mother; I have always 
paid each month as it went, and always laid 
aside money enough for the regular running 
expenses before I drew anything for pocket 
money.” 

Well, that is very gratifying and quite re- 
markable. Father has told me how satisfac- 
tory your accounts have always been, but I 


40 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


have thought that it must have occasionally 
been annoying to report to him every item ; 
and, indeed, I don’t see how you could well re- 
member all.” 

My entries for sundries were rather compre- 
hensive in my early years, but that diary with 
its leaves for expenses, which I got into the 
way of carrying about with me, was a good 
thing, and I’m happy to say I am all square.” 

‘‘ In that case you will have a bank account 
to which you can go whenever you wish to 
make a present to yourself of any little luxury 
or pleasure which you might otherwise feel 
you could not or ought not to afford.” 

Stacey came around to his mother’s side of 
the table and kissed her. ‘‘You dear little 
mother, how you do try to spoil me ! Be it 
known, once for all, that I haven’t a single un- 
satisfied desire that my allowance cannot gratify 
or that I would not willingly explain to father ; 
so this money will lie in the bank and accumu- 
late interest indefinitely. Don’t look so dis- 
appointed ; it may come in well in the far 
future, and it was very sweet and thoughtful 
of you to give it to me.” 

He turned to his seat, and his eye fell for the 


STAGEY AGAIN. 


41 


first time on the mysterious letter. He gave a 
long, low whistle of surprise as he recognized 
the handwriting, tore open the envelope, glanced 
through it hastily, thrust it into an inner pocket, 
and became at once serious and silent. 

Mrs. Fitz-Simmons tried to ask who the let- 
ter was from, but the words stuck in her throat. 
She poured his coffee, and watched him fur- 
tively as he ate rapidly, not noticing his food. 
Suddenly he consulted his watch. ‘‘ Dear me, 
how late it is ! Don’t expect me to luncheon ’ 
and he hurried into the hall and threw on his 
overcoat. 

His mother followed him. Are you going 
out in this pouring rain V ’ 

‘‘ I must ; I’ve several things to attend to. 
What time is the dinner to-night ?” 

‘‘ Seven ; but you must dress, and I asked 
your friend. Dr. Van Silver, to come early. 
Shall I order the carriage ?” 

‘‘All right. Good-by, dear. No, I won’t 
take your coachman and the horses out in this 
weather. I’ll just scud for the Sixth Avenue 
Elevated. Let me see, at what station does 
one get out to go to Hoboken ? I’ll be back as 
soon as I can. Good-by.” 


42 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Mrs. Fitz- Simmons returned to the dining- 
room and sank into the nearest chair, deeply 
troubled, and afraid even to think. There was 
more in this matter than she had been willing 
to believe. Who was this girl who boasted such 
intimacy, who confessed her inferiority, who 
threatened to make herself known at Stacey’s 
home, and who had such an influence over her 
son ? Mrs. Fitz-Simmons drew herself together 
with a supreme effort. I will not suspect 
Stacey,” she said to herself. ‘‘No matter if 
he has been indiscreet in the past, I have his 
assurance that there is no one that he cares for 
now. He has gone to put an end to this crea- 
ture’ s presumption.” 


CHAPTER III. 


THE BIRTHDAY DINNER — AN 
LEAVE-TAKING. 


UNEXPECTED 


^TACEY returned ear- 
ly in the afternoon, 
and in response to 
his mother’s inqui- 
ry announced that 
he had lunched 
with a fellow he 
used to know. ’ ’ He thank- 
ed his mother when she 
handed him his birthday 
gifts, which he had care- 
lessly left on the break- 
fast-table, and remarked with assumed care- 
lessness, as he slipped the bank-book into his 
pocket, “ I believe you said that this money 
was absolutely mine to do whatever I wish 
with.” 



‘‘Absolutely, Stacey.” 


44 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


‘‘ And that I need render no account either 
to you or father of how I spend it.” 

Mrs. Fitz- Simmons’s knees trembled. ‘‘ You 
are your own master, Stacey ; you need no 
longer render accounts except to your own con- 
science. We trust you implicitly.” 

He gave her a quick, grateful look, which 
almost reassured her. 

“ Thank you, mother ; I shall try to be 
worthy of your confidence.” 

“ Of course,” Mrs. Fitz- Simmons added tim- 
idly, ‘‘it is always gratifying for me to feel 
that you tell me your affairs, and you will 
always find me interested and sympathetic, 
especially if you ever find yourself in trou- 
ble.” 

Stacey smiled. ‘ ‘ I’ll tell you quickly enough, 
if ever I’m in trouble ; at present things seem 
to be coming my way even more than I could 
wish.” 

He looked at his watch. “It is after bank- 
ing hours,” he said, “ and not time yet to dress 
for dinner. It is too rainy to drive in the Park 
or to go out. What shall we do, little mother, 
to pass away the time ?” 

“ Your clothing is damp, Stacey ; go and 



A Typical Landscape. 
(From painting by F. J. du Chattel.) 





THE BIRTHDAY DINNER, 


45 


dress now, and I will play for you, if you like, 
until our guests begin to arrive.” 

When Stacey returned to the parlor, he ut- 
tered an exclamation of surprise. Mrs. Fitz- 
simmons was in full dress. She wore an orchid- 
tinted velvet, and he thought he had never seen 
her look so beautiful. He said so admiringly. 
‘‘ And do you know, mother, that some one 
who saw us meet at the station thought you 
were my sweetheart, and did not make such a 
bad guess either, for so you are.’’ 

Mrs. Fitz- Simmons smiled, and seating her- 
self at the piano, began to play and sing for 
him. Without being a skilled musician, she 
had a sympathetic voice, and she chose a num- 
ber of tender old ballads, into which she threw 
great feeling. 

‘‘ Don’t, mother, don’t,” Stacey cried, as she 
sang ‘‘Kathleen Mavourneen.” “I can’t bear 
that — 

“ ‘ It may be for years and it may be forever, ’ 

No, indeed. It is hard enough to go away, as 
I must, to-morrow, but— 

“ ‘ I’ll come and see you in spite o’ them a’.’ 

Sing that, please — it suits better with my pres- 
ent mood.” 


46 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


‘‘ If I only knew,” thought Mrs. Fitz-Sim- 
mons, ‘‘ whether Stacey is thinking of me when 
he says that, or of Milly, or of that other girl.” 

She sang the song he had asked for, and he 
joined in it with a rollicking, reckless tone 
which she did not quite like. ‘‘ And now that 
I have sung your song,” she said, ‘‘ you must 
listen to my favorite and she sang : 

“ ‘ Fading, still fading, the last beam is shining, 

Father in heaven, the day is declining ; 

Safety and innocence fly with the light. 

Temptation and danger walk forth with the night. ^ ” 

Stacey’s face dropped into his hands, and he 
listened quietly. He looked up at the close of 
the hymn. ‘‘You believe in me, don’t you, 
mother V ’ 

“ I should be very wretched if I did not, 
Stacey.” 

“Well, that hymn doesn’t sound exactly 
cheerful, and I want you to be happy, even if 
I am not. I know I’m not a very good fellow, 
but I am going to tell you something, mother.” 

Mrs. Fitz- Simmons’s heart leaped up — the 
moment for entire confidence had arrived — at 
last her son would tell her everything ; and at 
that instant the pompous butler threw open the 


THE BIRTHDAY DINNER. 


47 


parlor door. ‘‘Miss Milly Rose veldt, Miss 
Winifred De Witt !” 

Stacey sprang to his feet and darted forward. 

“ Yon, Milly ! I did not believe you would 
come. ” 

“ Stacey ! I did not know you were here.” 

“ And so we owe your presence to that happy 
ignorance laughed Mrs. Fitz-Simmons, greet- 
ing Milly kindly. “ So good of you both to 
come early ! And here is Dr. Yan Silver. We 
will have time for Miss De Witt to tell us all 
about the plans for the European tour before 
the others arrive.” 

They sat down together, and Mrs. Fitz-Sim- 
mons and Winnie kept the ball of conversation 
rolling merrily till the other guests dropped 
in one by one and dinner was announced. Mrs. 
Fitz-Simmons led the way to the dining-room, 
and the company paired off and followed. 
Stacey and Milly were left standing irresolutely. 
He bowed stiffly and offered his arm. Milly 
rested the tips of her gloved fingers upon it ; 
she was too well bred to create a scene. 

They found that they were to sit beside each 
other, but they scarcely spoke throughout the 
long dinner. Milly made an attempt to con- 


48 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


verse with an old beau on her right ; Stacey 
devoted himself to a debutante at his left. 
They might have been total strangers. Occa- 
sionally Stacey passed Milly the salted al- 
monds, but he divided his time between the 
debutante.^ his plate, and scowling at his mother. 
Milly ate scarcely anything, and was plainly 
distraught, replying so vaguely to the ancient 
dandy’s compliments that he set her down as 
extremely gauche and unaccustomed to society. 
Mrs. Fitz-Simmons now and then made a pleas- 
ant remark from across the table. She noticed 
the girl’s embarrassment, and said to herself, 
‘‘ She loves him.” Stacey noticed it, and 
thought, ‘‘ She is boiling with rage ; she is so 
angry that she cannot speak.” We have al- 
ready seen what construction the old beau 
placed upon her confusion, and none of them 
was right. Milly was simply too surprised to 
collect herself — surprised, first, at seeing Stacey 
at all ; and, secondly, at finding him so very 
different from what she had imagined. She 
had told herself that he would change, deterio- 
rate, that a soul that had once become blunted 
in its judgment of a moral question must rap- 
idly lose its grasp of everything good and noble 


THE BIRTHDAY DINNER. 


49 


and become a wreck ; and here was an erect, 
intellectual-appearing young man, with clear, 
honest eyes that met her own faltering ones 
with something of defiance, it was true, but 
frankly and fearlessly. His clean-shaven face 
was clear-cut, a trifle thinner, and much stronger 
than formerly. His voice was clear and pleas- 
ant. He was talking very ably to that chit 
about the Venezuelan question and the Monroe 
Doctrine. Why could not men gauge the capac- 
ity of their hearers a little more accurately ? 
The old beau had just asked her if she had at- 
tended the Patriarch’s ball, and Milly, with 
some vague recollection of a Lenten course of 
study on the Patriarchal period to which she 
had been invited, replied that she was very de- 
ficient in church history. The old beau stared, 
then laughed. Oh, a joke, I presume ! You 
young ladies are so witty, one never knows 
whether you mean a thing in sober earnest or 
are just saying it for the sake of repertoire^ 

“ For the sake of — what f ’ 

Repertoire — something not to be taken 
quite in its literary sensej don’t you know. 
Very funny. I’m sure and he cackled inanely. 

After that Milly was silent from pure disgust. 


50 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


as well as from interest in the conversation 
going on at her left. At length the intermina- 
ble meal was at an end, the carriages were an- 
nounced, and the girls hurried to the dressing- 
room for their wraps. Stacey seized the oppor- 
tunity to say to his mother : ‘‘ Make some one 
else escort Miss Roseveldt ; you saw how she 
treated me.’’ 

‘‘ I noticed how you treated her. Atone for 
your rudeness if you can.” 

The girls trooped down the staircase, and the 
arrangement at dinner was evidently understood 
to be that for the entire evening, for Stacey, 
who stood back, saw Milly standing alone, and 
heard the butler calling : Last carriage, Mr. 
Stacey.” His mother had paid no attention to 
his request ; there was no other way but to accept 
the situation. He hastily handed Milly to the 
carriage, where they found the old beau already 
ensconced with a clever woman, with whom he 
was engaged in animated conversation in regard 
to esoteric Buddhism. ‘‘ There is certainly 
more in it than we realize,” said the clever 
woman. “ It may seem absurd to you that an 
adept can leave his natural body in one place and 
travel about in his astral body, appearing to 


THE BIRTHDAY DINNER, 


51 


friends in a distant land, but the fact has been 
proved, and stranger things* still. It all de- 
pends upon whether one’s will is strong enough 
to conquer material obstructions — 

“ ‘ Stone walls do not a prison make 
Nor iron bars a cage ’ 

to a soul whose fancy is free to soar beyond 
them. Where the desires, the thought, the 
heart are, there is the soul, and the body is 
only an inert mass, a bit of luggage, which can 
be left till called for, if it is not convenient to 
take it with you.” 

Milly was a trifle mystified, but Stacey as- 
sented. I know that to be true from experi- 
ence in a certain sense,” he said. ‘‘ All the 
past winter my physical self has been studying 
at Harvard, but my thoughts have been other- 
where. It hasn’t given me any satisfaction, 
however, for either my astral body is so very 
immaterial that no one can see it, or else the 
person whom I would most have desired to im- 
press has been so indifferent that she has not 
been conscious of its presence. I am afraid I’m 
not an adept, after all, for though I am fre- 
quently out of my head, and always more or 


52 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


less out of heart and out of pocket, I am never 
entirely out of my body.'’ 

The clever young woman, who had looked 
upon him at first as an encouraging inquirer, 
decided that he was a very fiippant young man, 
and addressed her conversation thereafter to 
the old beau. 

In the box at the theatre, Stacey was seated 
behind Milly, and was cut off from conversing 
with any one else. They were practically alone, 
for the others were in the front chairs, and he 
began to talk to her of her projected trip. 
Milly replied enthusiastically, and Stacey looked 
at her fairly for the first time. How pretty she 
was ! Just the same Milly, with the fluffy 
blond hair breaking into wilful little curls all 
over her dainty head. Her hand, it struck 
him, was smaller than ever, but that turquoise 
necklace had the same way of nestling into 
dimples and playing hide-and-seek under the 
chiffon. Stacey appeared to be listening in- 
tently, but he had not comprehended a word. 
His mother smiled and nodded at him, they 
seemed to be getting on so weU together. A 
realization of what he had lost came over Stacey, 
and his heart was very bitter. They might 


THE BIRTHDAY DINNER. 


53 


have been sitting in exactly the same way, to 
all outward seeming, and yet with such differ- 
ent feelings toward each other. And yet, he 
realized it now, he could not have loved her 
more, whatever the understanding between 
them, only now he was in torture. Surely his 
punishment was greater than he could bear. 
He had a wild idea of telling her so then and 
there, but he restrained himself. The others 
turned occasionally to make a remark on the 
play. There was no opportunity ; and if there 
were, where was the use ? 

“ And so you see,” said Milly, we are going 
to bury ourselves in this little village of Laren 
and work very seriously, with no society or 
anything else to interrupt.” 

‘‘ Where is Laren V’ 

‘‘Why, I just explained —only a few miles 
from Amsterdam. It is an artist colony, some- 
thing like Shinnecock.” 

Stacey winced, and Milly was sorry she had 
referred to the art village. And Milly chatted 
on or was silent and listened to the play, and 
Stacey listened neither to the actors nor to her, 
but thought and thought, devouring her with 
his eyes. As he wrapped her white opera cloak 


54 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


around her when the play was over, he said : 
“ I remember this dress ; you wore it at the 
ball at the Meadow Club, the night after we 
were becalmed out on the bay.” 

‘‘ You have a good memory, but it is scarcely 
polite to remind one that one is wearing an old 
gown. ” 

“ It is charming, and as fresh as if it had just 
come from the modiste’s. I don’t believe you’ ve 
had it on since.” 

“ Nor have I.” 

Did you wear it just to see if I would recog- 
nize — No, of course not. You need not look 
so indignant. You said you did not know that 
I was at home.” 

‘‘ Do you doubt my word ?” 

‘‘ Certainly not. You would not have come 
if you had, though it cannot make much differ- 
ence to you whether I am present or not, for 
you have hardly been conscious of my presence 
all the evening ; while I — No, there is no 
truth in esoteric Buddhism, or you would have 
seen my ghost following you ever since you left 
Shinnecock. Since then I have lived a double 
life. I have known that I was mechanically 
bending over my desk translating the classics, 


THE BIRTHDAY DINNER. 


55 


and all the time I was talking to you. Have 
you never seen or heard me begging you to for- 
give me, to be friends again ? No, I shall go 
on following you, and you will never see me, 
for such ghosts are only seen by the heart.” 

They were standing on the pavement. Stacey 
had just sent a call-boy to look up the carriage, 
and they had stepped outside the awning to 
allow others to pass. 

“No, Milly,” he said, very deliberately, as 
though replying to some word of hers, “ I don’t 
want to be friends with you. If we can’t be 
anything more than that I must never see you 
again, for I love you so, that seeing you drives 
me mad.” 

“ Seven hundred and eleven !” yelled the 
call-boy. “ Here you are, sir. Where’s that 
other party ? Guess they’ve give up waiting 
and took the cable.” 

Stacey helped Milly into the carriage. The 
call-boy was right, the other couple had gone. 
“ Shall I ride home with you, Milly, and talk 
it over ?” 

“ If it may be friendship only, Stacey.” 

He closed the carriage-door without a word. 
The driver was his mother’s old coachman, and 


56 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Milly was quite safe alone. ‘‘ Take Miss Rose- 
veldt to her house, James. I shall walk home.” 

Mrs. Fitz-Simmons eyed Stacey curiously 
when he appeared at breakfast. It was the 
great mistake between these two that they did 
not confide in each other implicitly. They loved 
each other intensely, and Mrs. Fitz-Simmons 
made shrewd guesses as to her son’s desires and 
fancies, and devoted herself to forwarding them, 
but she sometimes made mistakes, and she was 
scheming, and little, and not quite straightfor- 
ward ; and Stacey was reticent and had no high 
opinion of her judgment or her capability for 
keeping a secret ; they lived with a veil be- 
tween them, and so what wonder that they some- 
times worked at cross purposes. She could not 
make him out now. One thing she knew, he 
had not slept all night. His light had been 
burning, and she had smelled tobacco-smoke. 
When awakened at three o’clock by his steady 
tramp, tramp overhead, she had slipped on a 
wrapper and gone upstairs to listen at his door, 
but it was like her that she did not go in. 

At breakfast he seemed to be under the infiu- 
ence of some intense excitement, but Mrs. Fitz- 
Simmons »re tended not to notice it. 


THE BIRTHDAY DINNER. 


57 


‘‘ The Noordland sails at noon. I have or- 
dered the carriage for eleven, ’ ’ she said. ‘ ‘ That 
will give ns plenty of time to drive over com- 
fortably, and not too much to stand about. 
One never knows what to say or to do on such 
occasions, and the briefer the leave-taking the 
better when it is a public one. That hour will 
suit you, will it not ? And you would better pack 
your things and have them all ready to take when 
you return, and then we will be perfectly free to 
do whatever we please until nearly train time.” 

‘‘Yes, I will pack certainly ; but you must 
not wait for me, as I have some errands to do 
this morning.” 

“ And you will meet me at the steamer ?” 

“ No— I mean yes, but I may be late ; per- 
haps may not be able to get there at all. Is 
my plush carriage robe that I used to have at 
Southampton anywhere convenient ? If so, I 
would like it.” 

“You will find it on the lounge in the library, 
but I do not need it, and it would make a pretty 
cover for your window divan. By the way, 
Stacey, don’t fail to get to the steamer on time, 
and bring some Mermet roses. Remember, my 
favorites — Mermets. ’ ’ 


58 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Stacey was rolling the blanket into as small 
a compass as possible, and straining hard at the 
shawl-strap. He deposited it on the hat-rack 
and ran upstairs. Presently he clattered down, 
singing “Kathleen Mavourneen.” 

“ ‘ It may be for years and it may be forever.’ 
Good-by, little mother, I’m off.” 

The front door banged. A strange, vague 
fear made Mrs. Fitz- Simmons spring up and 
ruD after him. “ Why did he sing that song ? 
Pshaw ! it was foolishness.” She ordered the 
carriage a little earlier than the hour she had 
mentioned, for she decided that as Stacey was 
not with her she would do a few errands on the 
way. As she stood in the hall she observed that 
the plush lap-robe was not on the hat-rack. 
What had become of it ? She was sure that she 
had noticed it there after Stacey had gone up- 
stairs, and no one but Stacey had passed through 
the hall since. Why had he taken it with him ? 

She drove first to the bank where she had 
deposited for years. The paying teller was an 
old acquaintance, an officious little man who 
knew everybody’s business, and liked to pro- 
claim his knowledge. 

“ Ah, Mrs. Fitz-Simmons, how did your son 


THE BIRTHDAY DINNER. 


59 


like his birthday present ? Though there is no 
need to ask that. The dear boy was here this 
morning and cashed half the account. He lost 
no time, you see.” Mrs. Fitz- Simmons’s blank 
look of amazement frightened him. ‘‘ Though, 
of course, you know all about il, and it was 
the young man’s own to do what he chose 
with, only at this gait of going it won’t 
last long. These young fellows have no idea 
of putting anything aside. They leave that 
for us.” 

‘‘ You are positive that my son drew out a 
large sum this morning?” Mrs. Fitz- Simmons 
asked. 

The teller consulted an account-book. ‘ ‘ Two 
hundred dollars. Some little debt, I presume, 
at Harvard. They all have ’em. Bless your 
soul, every young man must have his fling.’ ’ 

Mrs. Fitz- Simmons turned her back abruptly. 
She would not let this man see her trouble. 
But in her emotion she could not tell her coach- 
man from what dock the Noordland sailed. 

‘‘ Drive to Low’s Steamer Agency, ” she said. 
“ It is just round on Broadway. We will ascer- 
tain there.” 

The agent was all smiles. ‘‘ No wonder you 


60 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


could not think with your son’s leave-taking 
on your mind. Red Star Line, Pier 14, North 
River. Your son was here not an hour ago, 
and succeeded in. getting a stateroom that 
pleased him. He was very lucky, for it doesn’t 
do to leave buying one’s ticket until the date 
of sailing. Only one chance in a thousand that 
things would have turned out as they did, and 
a good outside cabin be given up at the last 
minute.” 

Mrs. Fitz- Simmons listened with increasing 
dismay. My son bought a ticket for Ant- 
werp this morning 1” she repeated, in a dazed 
way. “ You must be mistaken.” 

“ Oh, no mistake, I assure you, though, as I 
was saying, it came near being one. The Rose- 
veldt party sail on the same steamer. I pre- 
sume you know. I told your son, but saw he 
was already informed of the fact. They will 
be congenial, I am sure.” 

Mrs. Fitz- Simmons tottered to h^ carriage. 
Stacey going to Europe without saying a word 
to her ? What could it mean, and in the middle 
of his last college year ? Had his love for Milly 
so turned his head that he was absolutely in- 
sane ? She trembled so that she could scarcely 


THE BIRTHDAY DINNER, 


61 


give the order, Pier 14, North River, and 
drive fast, James — drive fast !” 

Then, as she lay back in her luxurious car- 
riage, the thought came to her, “ That Nash 
girl wrote that she too was to sail on the Noord- 
land !” The realization came with such a sud- 
den shock that she fainted. When James drew 
rein at the pier no one alighted. The coach- 
man grew frightened, and asked a policeman to 
open the door. 

‘‘ The lady’s dead,” said the man in buttons — 
‘‘ dead or fainted. Sure, this is no place for 
her in ayther emergency ; it’s a hospital you 
want for one, and the simiterry for the other ; 
and, in the mane time, drive to the drug-store 
on the corner beyant ; perhaps they can fix 
her.” 

The druggist succeeded in bringing her to 
consciousness, and her first words were, “Has 
the Noordland sailed ?” 

“Not yet, but you’ve scant time. Drive 
back to the pier at once, and you may make it.” 

As Mrs. Fitz-Simmons alighted the ship 
started forward, and a farewell cheer rose from 
the crowd. She rushed forward, but it was 
too late, the steamer was slipping out of th^. 


62 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


dock into the open water. On deck— she could 
see them plainly — were Milly Roseveldt and 
Winnie waving bunches of roses to Mr. Van 
Silver, who stood on a packing -box on the pier. 
Just beyond the girls, frantically waving his 
stick, to which was tied a crimson silk hand- 
kerchief, was a young man. Her eyes were 
dim, her brain reeled, and she could not see his 
features. Was it Stacey ? It must be, for she 
recognized the overcoat with the broad fur col- 
lar and cuffs. Perhaps he was not sorry that 
the wind blew the handkerchief across his face. 

No one who had seen Mrs. Fitz- Simmons in 
her brilliant velvet dress the night before would 
have recognized this old woman with the 
blanched, haggard face. She had grown old 
in a few hours through intense mental suffer- 
ing, for 

“ There is naught on earth more miserable 
Than she that hath a son and sees him err.” 


CHAPTER ly. 


THE MYSTERIOUS PASSENGER. 


VERYTHING was 
bright and inspir- 
ing and the girls 
were in high spir- 
its as the ship 
steamed down the 
bay. The statue of 
Liberty seemed to 
wave them a good-by with 
her torch, and Staten Island 
looked her loveliest. But 
soon after Coney Island 
dropped below the horizon a stiff breeze sprang 
up, and all of the party except Milly very 
wisely sought the seclusion which the cabin 
grants. ” 

Milly, over-confident in herself as an old 
sailor,” had her steamer-chair lashed to the 




64 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


rail, and resolutely tixed her eyes on her novel, 
quite sure that she was not going to be ill. 
One after another the other ladies descended in 
a more or less limp condition, but Milly re- 
mained as obstinate as Casabianca. It was true 
that the novel had lost its interest, that the 
ship rolled frightfully, that she felt dizzy and 
faint, and that, though she told herself reso- 
lutely that she was not sick yet., still she was 
sure she would be if she attempted to go down 
or to change her position in the least. Where 
was the deck steward ? She called him feebly, 
and a young man standing not far away started 
in search of him. Something familiar in the 
shape of the man’s back or in the cut of his 
overcoat struck her as he strode away, but she 
was too inert to think of it. Presently the 
steward appeared and thrust a bowl of steam- 
ing bouillon under her nose. That was too 
much, and Milly was ill in earnest. She lay 
back in her steamer-chair spent and shudder- 
ing, but still unwilling to go down to the close 
atmosphere of the cabin. 

‘‘ You’re a plucky girl,” said the steward ; 
“and, generally speaking, I should say you 
were better off here, for the air is better ; but 


THE MTSTEmoUS PASSENGER. 


65 


there is a bit of a squall coming up, and you’d 
better let me assist you down.” 

Milly shook her head feebly. “Wait till I 
feel better.” 

“ All right, mum ; I’ll be round again in a 
few minutes.” 

Milly lay perfectly still. What was this 
deadly feeling ? How was it possible that she 
could be ill again ? She lay with her eyes closed, 
uttering no word. Presently she felt herself 
being tucked in. “Steward,” she gasped 
faintly, “ if you can carry me, I’ll go down- 
stairs. Stateroom 30.” 

Instantly she was lifted in a pair of strong 
arms, and through her faintness and misery 
came the startling realization that this was not 
the steward ; but she was too helpless to pro- 
test, too certain that if she lifted her head a 
horrible paroxysm would ensue, and so she 
only murmured, “Quick! quick!” and tried 
to stifle back for a moment the nausea to which 
she knew now she must succumb. Pride is a 
great aid to self-control, and Milly reached her 
stateroom with no mortifying mishap, but she 
kept her berth for several days. 

The others all crept on deck before her, but 


66 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Milly clung to a sofa in the ladies’ cabin even 
after she was quite able to walk. A realization 
of her adventure had come to her, and she was 
overwhelmed with shame and indignation. 
She related the experience to Winnie, much to 
the latter’s amusement. “ I don’t see how you 
can laugh !” Milly replied indignantly. ‘‘To 
me the thought is simply loathsome. I am so 
thankful that I did not open my eyes, that I 
did not look at his face, and haven’t the least 
idea who he is, for I could never endure to 
speak to him again. But, then, when you 
come to think of it, it makes it all the worse, 
for he may be any one^ and I am compelled not 
to speak to a single man during the entire voy- 
age. Yes, that is the only way, and it is my 
fixed determination. Just imagine him laugh- 
ing as you are now at his memory of my con- 
dition. Oh, I never can endure it !’’ 

Winnie became serious at once. “I don’t 
believe he is laughing. If he were that kind 
of a man he would have done so then instead 
of springing to help you. It strikes me as a 
very kind act. Certainly you could not have 
been a very attractive object. I think you 
ought to be more grateful.” 


THE MYSTERIOUS PASSENGER. 


67 


‘‘ I am not. He had no business to intrude 
his attentions when I was too sick to resent 
them. He should have called the steward. I 
think he was simply abominable. It was the 
most impudent thing I ever heard of, and he 
never so much as asked my permission, but 
went about the matter as coolly and profession- 
ally as if he were a physician whom I had sent 
for.” 

“ Perhaps he is a doctor. In that case his 
interest is perfectly natural. You were a case, 
that’s all ; and he was simply interested in you 
from a professional standpoint.’ ’ 

‘‘ Oh, I hope it is so. Do look over the list 
of passengers, and see whether there are any 
doctors on board.” 

Four of them ; so it’s quite likely. Mark 
my words, he will prove to be one, and will 
send you in a little bill before the voyage is 
over.” 

Milly was much comforted. “ What are the 
names of the doctors ?” she asked. 

Jones and Tompkins and— of all remark- 
able coincidences, PietYan Pieterzoon, Amster- 
dam. Where have I heard that name be- 
fore ?” 


68 


WITCH WINNIH iJSt HOLLAND. 


‘‘ I don’t know. I’m sure I never heard it. 
I hope it is Dr. Van What’s-his-name, and that 
he doesn’t know a word of English. That 
doesn’ t seem unlikely, for now I think of it, he 
never said a word to me. That's a little odd, 
isn’t it f’ 

It seems to me quite respectful. You cer- 
tainly would not have wanted to carry on a 
conversation under the circumstances. But 
this Piet Van Pieterzoon is not a physician. I 
simply said his name had a very familiar sound. 
I suppose I must have met a Mr. Van Pieter- 
zoon somewhere. If so, we will jirobably rec- 
ognize each other. Come, let us go on deck, 
for it is a glorious day.” 

Two days passed, and the physician, if it was 
one who had Avaited on Milly, did not appear 
to ask after his patient, nor did Winnie recog- 
nize among the passengers any familiar face 
which might belong to the mysterious Van 
Pieterzoon. Dr. Tompkins was introduced to 
them later on. He was a little man, who con- 
fessed that he had kept his stateroom from the 
hour that he came on board. Even before they 
made this discovery Milly knew that he was 
not the man. 


THE MYSTERIOUS PASSENGER. 


69 


“ He couldn’t have carried me a yard,” she 
explained to Winnie. 

‘‘After all, it may have been the steward 
who carried you down. How do you know it 
wasn’ t, if your eyes were closed V ’ 

“ His overcoat had a fur collar. The fur 
tickled my ear,” Milly replied, with a blush. 

“ Ah ! then we have a clew. We will inves- 
tigate all the fur-trimmed overcoats.” 

“ Don’t, Winnie. Haven’t I told you that I 
particularly do not want to know the man 

“Not even if he is a do(>tor f ’ 

“ He is not a doctor.” 

“ How do you know ?” 

“ His overcoat would have smelled of ether 
or carbolic or something dreadful, and there 
was nothing but tobacco — good cigars, such as 
Stacey used. ” 

“ It seems to me you made pretty good use 
of your senses for a sick girl.” 

“ I neither heard nor saw, but my very ill- 
ness made my sense of smell more acute.” 

“ Well, you may not care to know,” thought 
Winnie, “ but I am curious, and shall look 
out for a cloud of smoke fluttering over a fur- 
trimmed overcoat.” 


70 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


That very afternoon she experienced a shock. 
As she was tramping resolutely up and down, 
taking her constitutional, she noticed a man, 
seated on a camp-stool far aft, sketching. He 
sat with his back to her, but her first impres- 
sion was that it was Stacey Fitz- Simmons. She 
was on the point of walking straight to the 
sketcher, when the absurdity of the idea re- 
strained her. 

It was utterly impossible that this could be 
Stacey, for she had bidden him good-by on the 
evening of the theatre party, and his name w^as 
not on the list of passengers. She turned re- 
luctantly and continued her walk, but when 
she seated herself by Milly's side she told her 
of her impression, laughing at it as quite a 
joke. Milly looked startled afld serious. She 
was profoundly puzzled, and the next day 
something occurred which was, to say the least, 
very remarkable. Milly was dozing in her 
steamer-chair, Winnie engaged in a game of 
shuffleboard in another part of the ship, and 
Mrs. Rose veldt had not come on deck, for there 
was a good deal of wind. The motion did not 
affect Milly unpleasantly now, it simply made 
her drowsy and rocked her off to sleep. The 


THE MYSTERIOUS PASSENGER. 


71 


wind played with her wraps, fluttered her veil 
aside, and rippled her flaxen curls. A young 
man pacing the deck glanced at her with more 
than ordinary interest each time that he passed. 
He was thinking, “ How I would like to sit 
down and make a sketch of her, but she would 
never forgive me ! No, it won’t do.” 

A gust of wind a little stronger than the 
others tore oft’ the Scotch shawl, which was 
thrown over Milly’s lap, and blew it along the 
deck. The young man saw it as he turned and 
made a dash forward, but the wind was quicker 
than he, and the shawl slipped like a thing of 
life under the railing and dropped on to the 
steerage deck. 

The young man hurried down the companion- 
way, in the hope of recovering it, but it was no- 
where to be found. Either it had been blown into 
the sea, or some nimble steerage X)assenger had 
seen the prize and secured it. There was no one 
on that side of the deck whom he could question. 
He returned to Milly. She was still sleeping, 
and he did not think best to awaken her. 
“But she will take cold,” he said to himself. 
“ How fortunate that this overcoat is so long 
and heavy that I do not need a lap-robe !” 


WITCH WIKKIE IH HOLLAND. 


n 


Hastening to his stateroom, he again returned 
with a handsome plush carriage -robe, which he 
carefully tucked about the half -unconscious 
girl. Thank you,” she sleepily murmured, 
thinking that the deck steward was securing 
her wraps. The young man tiptoed quietly 
away and returned no more ; and Milly, when 
she awaked, regarded her comfortable covering 
with the utmost astonishment. The steward 
appearing, she questioned him, and a snappish 
young woman, who had witnessed the episode, 
volunteered a partial explanation. 

‘‘ Yours blew overboard, and your friend, 
that gentleman who is in your party, wrapped 
you up,” she said. 

But there is no gentleman in our party.” 

‘‘ No ? Well, I’m sure you know who I 
mean, for it is the same young man whom you 
let carry you downstairs the first day out.” 

Milly colored with indignation, but she could 
not explain. She leaned back in her chair and 
thought. The only thing to be done seemed to 
be to leave the robe in the care of the steward, 
if the owner did not appear to claim it. In 
the mean time it was very comfortable, and as 
she nestled in its luxurious folds and noticed 


THE MYSTERIOUS PASSENGER. 


73 


the beautiful shading of its leonine coloring, a 
vague sense of familiarity struck her. Sud- 
denly the remembrance came to her that she 
had had a rug like this about her when she 
drove with Stacey, on that windy day, from 
Southampton to the Golf Club on the Shinne- 
cock Downs. 

‘‘Nonsense!” she said to herself. “Of 
course they turn out robes of the same color 
and pattern by the wholesale from the factories, 
and the prettier and more popular, of course, 
the more of them are made.” 

Winnie came up glowing with exercise and 
excitement. “I’ve found out who he is 1” she 
exclaimed. “ He was introduced to me by the 
captain, and we played shuffleboard together 
against the captain and Mrs. Archer. You 
know she has been the ship’s champion, and 
we beat them, too. But I can’t tell even now 
why his name seemed so familiar, for I never 
set eyes on him before.” 

“You mean that his conduct was familiar, 
for we did not know his name. What is it ? 
I will return his rug immediately.” 

“ Why, Van Pieterzoon, of course. Is that 
his rug ? How did you get it f ’ 


74 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


“ He wrapped it around me not an hour ago.” 

Impossible. I tell you he has been playing 
shuffleboard with me all the morning.” 

“Then we are not talking about the same 
person. Why did you say his name was Van 
Pieterzoon ?” 

“ Because it is. He is a nice old Hutch cocoa 
merchant, but very active in spite of his age 
and his avoirdupois. He speaks English per- 
fectly, but with the most delicious accent. He 
has been a great traveller ; has been to China, 
and makes the voyage to his cocoa plantations 
in the Hutch AYest Indies every few years. 
You know, we ascertained from the ship’s list 
that he lives in Amsterdam. Now, how did 
you happen to get his lap-robe ?” 

Milly made a gesture of impatience. “ It 
isn’t his. I don’t care anything about your 
Van Prettysoons. I thought you meant— my 
mysterious doctor.” 

“ Oh ! Has he been around again ? Well, I 
must say, Milly Roseveldt, that I think matters 
are progressing pretty fast if you allow this 
complete stranger, this man of whose very 
name you have not the least idea, to tuck you 
up in his steamer-rug.” 


THE MYSTERIOUS PASSENGER, 


75 


‘‘Hush!” entreated Milly. “I couldn’t 
help it ; I was asleep.” 

Winnie laughed. “ He has a miraculous way 
of availing himself of your moments of neces- 
sity and unconsciousness. There is something 
positively uncanny about this. You must not 
be left alone an instant. I propose to chaperone 
you most strictly for the remainder of the voy- 
age.” 

“ Do, please, for it certainly is very funny.” 

Mrs. Roseveldt, on hearing a report of the 
occurrences, did not agree with her daughter. 
To her the young man’s behavior was not 
“ funny,” but unpardonably impertinent. She 
insisted that the lap-robe should be immedi- 
ately discarded and hung over the companion- 
way, where it could be claimed by its owner. 
Milly meekly obeyed, but as she was folding it 
a ribbon, stitched to one corner and embroid- 
ered with the name of the owner, caught her 
eye. It was Stacey Fitz- Simmons ! 

It was a little remarkable that Milly, who 
was usually very confiding, and ready to go to 
her friends f jr sympathy and advice — so much 
so, that it was commonly reported among them 
that Milly was a chameleon, taking the color 


7G WITCH WINNIH IN HOLLAND. 

of her views from her friends, as the little ani- 
mal is supposed to do from surrounding objects 
— that Milly, who loved to share her secrets, 
her hopes, and her fears with Winnie, in order 
that she might be petted or scolded, pitied or 
congratulated, said nothing whatever of this 
remarkable discovery either to her mother or 
Winnie. And yet she believed that Stacey had 
come on her account, and she thought it very 
strange that he had not approached them 
openly. “ He will surely do so soon,” she 
thought. ‘‘ He is waiting to be sure that I am 
no longer seasick. ’’ But as the days went on 
and Stacey did not appear, his cond net seemed 
to her still more mysterious. Not that he did 
not speak to her, that was explainable by the 
supposition that he had accepted her dismissal 
as final, and had not taken this trip with any 
reference to her. But why should he be in 
hiding ? Why did not his name appear on the 
list of passengers ? AVas he running away ? 
Why had he not told her at the dinner that he 
was going to Europe ? It was all very strange, 
and it troubled her exceedingly. Occasionally 
she caught a glimpse of the fur- trimmed over- 
coat at a distance, usually on that part of the 


THE MYSTERIOUS PASSENGER. 


77 


deck reserved for the second-class passengers, 
though its wearer must have gohe there from 
choice, as she had seen him several times on 
their own deck, where the second-class were 
not allowed. Once she passed him when he 
was lying half-hidden away behind the life- 
boats. He had found and appropriated his 
lap-robe. She recognized it as she approached 
him from behind, but he heard her stejj and 
j)ulled his cap well down over his face, feign- 
ing sleep as she passed. Evidently he was try- 
ing to escape observation. She never saw him 
at table or in the smoking-room, which he 
would naturally have haunted, or chatting with 
the ladies, which was certainly strangest of all. 
He was usually drawing in a little sketch-book, 
and twice she had noticed him walking with a 
X)oorly dressed girl, who wore a dark-red worsted 
hood. She found herself observing this girl 
very closely after that. She appeared to be 
travelling alone, and was quiet and well-be- 
haved, but not such a girl as she would have 
thought could have interested Stacey. 

Meantime, Mr. Van Pieterzoon had been in^ 
troduced to Mrs. Hoseveldt and Milly, and had 
proved to be a very interesting, kindly man. 


78 


WITCH WlNmE IN HOLLAND. 


He was a good story teller, not so silent and 
phlegmatic as she had imagined all Dutchmen 
to be. He told them of his travels, and later 
on, as they became better acquainted, even of 
his family affairs. He was married, but had 
no sons, only daughters. It was the grief of 
his life, he told them, that he had no boy, 
whom he could educate as a physician. That 
had been his dream, his fondest desire. 

‘‘ But why so,” Mrs. Eoseveldt asked, ‘‘ since 
you are not a doctor 

There are grave family reasons,” he replied, 
why this would have been desirable. A re- 
mote ancestor left a curious will. One of the 
provisions was to the effect that there should 
always be a descendant of his in the practice of 
medicine who had studied at the University of 
Leyden, and failing this, that his fortune, which 
he left so entailed that its income only could 
be used by his heirs, should become the prop- 
erty of a Leyden orphanage. The fund left by 
our ancestor has been so well invested that the 
income is sufficient to keep every member of 
the family in affluence, and until last year, 
when the last Dr. Van Pieterzoon died, we have 
been able to comply with the conditions of the 


THE MYSTERIOUS PASSENGER. 


79 


will. Now, however, there is not only no phy- 
sician in our family, but there are no young 
men willing to study medicine. I have been 
to the Surinam, hoping to find the required 
young man in a branch of our family settled 
there, but they seem to have only girls in this 
generation. And now a very strong hope is 
blasted, for I am returning from a vain effort to 
trace the family in America. We know that 
some relatives emigrated with the earliest Dutch 
settlers of New Amsterdam, but I cannot find 
the name in New York or any trace.of its hav- 
ing ever existed there.” 

“ And yet,” Winnie replied, musingly, “ it is 
strangely familiar to me. I have certainly 
heard it somewhere.” 

Are you sure of this ?” Mr. Yan Pieterzoon 
asked eagerly. “ Ah, if you could only' fur- 
nish the information of which we are in search ! 
But the young man must be produced and be- 
come a regularly enrolled student of the uni- 
versity this autumn or the fortune will be for- 
feited. We have a young cousin. Lieutenant 
Dirk Van Pieterzoon, in the Belgian cavalry, 
whom I shall still approach ; but the stipend 
which he receives from the legacy is, I fear. 


80 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


not enough to induce him to resign his position 
in the army, with all its social associations and 
hope of glory. Still, it is worth while for the 
rest of us to pool a handsome sum, and make 
it to his interest to help us.” 

This is all very interesting,” said Winnie ; 
‘‘ and if I were only at home, I believe I could 
help you.” 

How would you go about it ?” 

“ I would ask one of my friends, who is a 
member of the Colonial Dames, to look up the 
name. I think it may be found in some of the 
genealogical records of the society or in the 
State records at Albany.” 

The Dutchman shook his head incredulously ; 
but Winnie wrote a long and enthusiastic letter 
to Van, urging him to investigate the matter. 
This letter she posted on their arrival at Ant- 
werp, but it would be a fortnight before she 
could receive a reply, and even then it was not 
likely that he could answer her questions with- 
out long search. 

How beautiful was the sail up the Scheldt ! 
The ship left the tumultuous ocean, and entered 
the peaceful river in the early morning. Win- 
nie and Milly had asked the stewardess to call 


THE MYSTERIOUS PASSENGER. 


81 


them at two o’clock, and the stars were shining 
through tlie gray of early morning twilight as 
they went on deck. Then the first flush of 
dawn tinted the eastern horizon with a faint 
blush of rose, and yellow and greenish glints 
mounted into the gray. It was entrancing and 
fairy -like. The silver mists hung low, hiding 
the banks with long scarfs of pearly gauze, 
which broke and lifted as the light grew 
stronger, very much as the transformation 
scenes in a theatre are shifted, and one veil of 
gauze after another unrolls to show the grand 
effect. The sun rolled up a crimson ball, re- 
flected in the water, and seemingly tossing and 
falling, in uncertainty whether to actually rise 
or to set once more. “ Griorious ! glorious !” 
Milly exclaimed, but Winnie shivered in the 
damjD breeze and ran below for a wrap. There 
was only one other person on deck, a man 
standing far forward, like a ship’s figurehead. 
Neither Milly nor he had noticed each other, 
so absorbed were both in the wondrous beauty 
of the scene. Presently the man turned and 
walked down the deck, passing behind Milly, 
who was leaning on the rail, quite unconscious 
of his proximity, until he held a field -glass in 


82 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


froDt of her, saying, “ If you will use this 
you can see the spire of Antwerp Cathe- 
dral.” 

Milly did not recognize the voice, and re- 
plying “Thank you,” was about to take the 
glass, when she noticed that the hand that held 
it issued from a fur-trimmed cuff. She did not 
turn, but added hastily and coldly, “ I never 
use a glass !” The hand was immediately 
withdrawn, and its owner passed on. Milly 
reproached herself for not facing Stacey and 
speaking more courteously, but it was too 
late. 

Winnie returned a moment later, all excite- 
ment. “ Whom do you suppose I met just 
now ?” 

“ Stacey ?” Milly asked, with an effort to 
keep the tremor out of her voice. 

“ No ; Stacey’s valet at Shinnecock. What 
was his name ?” 

“ John Nash. Did you ask him if Stacey is 
on board V ’ 

“ No ; I was so surprised, and I could not 
quite place him on the instant, so I simply 
nodded. Oh, look ! look ! There are dykes 
with the roofs of houses just showing above 


THE MYSTERIOUS PASSENGER. 


83 


them. The houses themselves must be on land 
lower than the river. And there is Antwerp ! 
And now America and all its interests have 
faded out, and our new life begins 


CHAPTER V. 


ANTWERP. 


r^NTWERP is a fascinating old city, 
<3 \ worthy of being the gateway 

/ q \ fo the Netherlands. The girls felt 
/ ' its charm as soon as they saw its 


noble Gothic cathe- 



dral spire and heard 
^ its joyous chimes. 


% That spire was like a 
^ magnet to the vision. 
^ They could never tire 
£_ of observing it in new 
combinations with the 


quaint, huddling, stepped gables and dormered 
roofs, and they could never wander where 
they could not hear the carillon. Every 
fifteen minutes its notes floated down to 
them, with a more complete tune each hour ; 
at times 


ANTWERP. 


85 


“ Most musical and solemn, bringing back the olden times, 

With their strange, unearthly changes, rang the melancholy 
chimes ; 

Like the psalms from some old cloister, when the nuns sing 
in the choir ; 

And the great bell tolled among them, like the chanting of 
a friar.” 

Oftener the music was not solemn, but some 
gay and lilting strain from some opera, to which 
the children danced in the streets. The mak- 
ing of these chimes was carried to astonishing 
perfection in the Netherlands, and they w^ere 
ordered for the principal cathedrals of other 
countries. It is related that Don Joao V., King 
of Portugal, having ordered a set for the con- 
vent of Mafra, the Dutch manufacturers de- 
clined to furnish them, for fear the kingdom 
could not bear the expense. Whereupon the 
king, stung to the quick, wrote back that he 
had no idea they were so cheap, and would 
therefore take two sets and pay for them in 
advance. 

The interior of the cathedral exercised a par 
ticular charm over AVinnie. She stood spell- 
bound before Rubens’s masterpieces, ‘‘ The De- 
scent from the Cross,” The Raising of the 
Cross,” and the ‘^Assumption.” Milly loved 


86 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


to wander about, quietly enjoying the rich 
wood-carving, the mellow light slanting through 
the magnificent stained-glass windows through 
clouds of incense, the lofty arches, and the 
quiet worshippers. 

They visited the old prison of the Steen, now 
a most interesting museum of antiquities, and 
the Plan tin Museum. This is one of the best 
preserved and appointed of mediaeval houses, 
the house of a wealthy printer and book pub- 
lisher, Christopher Plan tin, who carried on his 
business in one part of the building in 1579, 
and lived in great luxury in apartments under 
the same roof. The building, with its antique 
furniture, its ninety family portraits — fourteen 
by Rubens and two by Vandyke— its collections 
of old proof-sheets, first impressions, engrav- 
ings, examples of old and rare prints and books, 
and many other objects connected with print- 
ing, was purchased by the city, after having 
been used by the family as printing-house and 
dwelling for several generations. The house is 
built around a central court, which is itself a 
beautiful feature, with its cloistered arches and 
luxuriant ancient vine. Around the court, fas- 
cinating rooms, with floors on a great variety of 


ANTWERP. 


87 


levels, lead one about in a labyrinth delightfully 
mystifying. The two girls played hide-and-seek 
with one another and themselves, discovering 
new tapestried chambers v^ith every turn, or 
tiny rooms hung with the beautiful embossed 
and gilded leather for which mediaeval Holland 
and Belgium are so famous. 

The Picture Gallery of Antwerp, with its 
priceless collection of old masters, was another 
of their favorite haunts, and here they had an 
opportunity of comparing the two great masters, 
Rubens and Vandyke. While their wonder 
daily grew at Rubens’s marvellous fertility of 
invention, his daring imagination, his mastery 
of anatomy and of sumptuous color, and the 
immense amount of work which he accom- 
plished, even when due allowance is made for 
the assistance of his pupils, their admiration 
was still more enchained by Vandyke’s refine- 
ment, both in color and in character. Milly 
decided that he must have been very happy in 
his sitters. “ Only noble ladies and gentlemen 
seem ever to have sat for him,” she remarked. 
But Winnie asserted that Vandyke gave to his 
portraits something of his own distinction of 
soul. 


88 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


I don’t believe Vandyke could paint a face 
without idealizing it, without bringing to the 
surface all that was latent and suggested in the 
direction of the man’s best, and when he had 
no best, endowing him with some nobility 
which would have become him.” 

Winnie had a poor memory for dates, and for 
future reference jotted in her note -book the 
years of birth and death of the four artists 
whose masterpieces she most admired : 


Rubens, born 1577, 

died 1640. 

Vandyke, 

1599, 

‘‘ 1641. 

Frans Hals, “ 

1580, 

“ 1666. 

Rembrandt, ‘‘ 

1606, 

“ 1669. 


To these Winnie added two dates : 1567, the year 
the Spanish troops entered Holland, the begin- 
ning of that long contest of forty- one years, to 
the twelve years’ truce, and twenty-seven years 
more to 1648, when Spain, being thoroughly 
beaten, peace was solemnly declared. It was 
interesting to note that all the four artists were 
born during the war, that Rubens and Van- 
dyke died before its conclusion, while Hals and 
Rembrandt lived to see the restoration of peace. 


ANTWERP. 


89 


Having settled these events in her mind, Win- 
nie concerned herself no more with dates. 

The very streets of Antwerp, with their types 
of modern life —the artisans of the city, the 
peasants from the country — were fascinatingly 
picturesque. Most paintable were the milk- 
sellers, with their dog-carts, suggesting Ouida’s 
touching story, ‘‘A Dog of Flanders,’^ and 
their shining brass milk-cans. 

The Steen, the Cathedral, the Plantin Museum, 
the Picture Gallery, and the streets remain for 
every visitor to Antwerp ; but the girls had one 
special privilege which is not accorded to every 
traveller. It was the year of the International 
Exposition, and though they agreed, as they 
wandered through its encampment of kiosks, 
chalets, and halls of nondescript and uninter- 
esting architecture, that it was not to be for 
one moment compared in dignity and beauty 
to our own White City, still there was one part 
of the exhibition so complete in itself, so pic- 
turesque in its genera] effect, and so perfectly 
carried out in every detail, that they returned 
to it again and again with increasing delight. 
This was Old Antwerp {Oud Antwerpen). Nar- 
row, tortuous streets centred on an irregular 


90 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


market square, around which antique-appear- 
ing houses in the mediseval Dutch style were 
grouped, and burghers in quaint costumes stood 
within plying their trades, or walked about 
chatting with one another. The illusion was 
so complete, that they felt as if they had been 
transported by some magic power into the heart 
of the Middle Ages — Antwerp en fete in the six- 
teenth century. This century was a remark- 
able one for the old city. It had reached a 
prosperity which enabled its burghers to live 
and dress in much luxury, and to devote them- 
selves to spectacles and amusements. A Flor- 
entine, writing of a visit to Antwerp in 1566, 
says : 

The men and women of every age dress very 
well and in a manner befitting their station, 
and always in novel and beautiful costumes, 
but often with more of pomp and extravagance 
than strict honesty requires. One sees at every 
hour wedding processions, festivals ; one hears 
on all sides the sound of all instruments, songs, 
and joyous shouts— in brief, on every side ap- 
pears a manifestation of the wealth, the power, 
the pomp, and splendor of the city.” 

One feature of this period was the great num- 


ANTWERP. 


91 


ber of out-of-door spectacles — plays performed 
in the public squares, dancing in the street, and 
‘^joyous entries,” consisting of processions to 
welcome the visits of distinguished guests. 
Margaret of Austria made her solemn entree 
into the city in 1507. The Emperor Maximilian 
and the young Prince Charles made 2ijoyeuse 
entree in 1516, and in 1520 Charles, after having 
been elected Emperor of Germany, was again 
feted in Antwerp. Philip II. was solemnly 
welcomed in 1549, and the Archduke Matthias 
of Austria in 1578. Then William of Orange 
received the popular acclaim, and after the city 
fell into the hands of the Spaniards, the daugh- 
ter of Philip II., Isabella, and her husband, 
were received with great magnificence in 1599. 

It v/ill be seen from this brief recapitulation, 
that all through the century Antwerp was con- 
tinually opening her gates with great rejoicing 
and glorification to very different personages. 
The festivals were not always political, for 
when Albert Purer visited the city in 1520, he, 
too, was greeted by a procession organized by 
the painters of the city. In 1561 a great liter- 
ary celebration was held by a society of rheto- 
ricians, and when the first bishop was installed, 


92 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


in 1570, the clergy showed what they could do 
in the way of gorgeous street pageants. 

It was, therefore, a happy thought on the 
part of the managers of the exhibition to show, 
not only the quaint Gothic architecture of the 
ancient town, but to choose a period most ad- 
mirably adapted for theatrical display. The 
various guilds and societies of Antwerp enacted 
frequently, during the duration of the exhi- 
bition, all sorts of plays, entertainments, and 
processions which were or might have been 
performed in the old diversion loving city. 
There were puppet shows, jugglers and min- 
strels, mummers and maskers, and the popu- 
lace in gala costume, all enjoying themselves to 
the utmost. So vivid was the impression that 
this was all really of the period, that Winnie, 
pointing to a stalwart halberdier, remarked 
unconsciously to Milly, What a pity it is 
that we can’t have men like that nowadays !” 

The girls found the shops, established in the 
lower stories of the houses, very interesting, 
and Winnie sketched the ironwork signs which 
swung before the doors. One, representing a 
spider’s web, appropriately indicated the lace- 
makers, where Milly purchased a beautiful 


ANTWERP. 


93 


fichu of frost-like Brussels point applique. 
The houses bore odd names or dedications ; one, 
devoted to cold meats, had a swinging sign in 
the shape of a crown made of sausages. To 
the Windmill,” was occupied by a baker ; To 
A>he Pelisse,” by the costumer of the town; 

To the Golden Compass,” by a publisher of 
guide-books ; To the Fox,” by a restaurant- 
keeper, etc. On one afternoon they saw a capi- 
tal reproduction of an old miracle play, such as 
is described in Longfellow’s Golden Legend ;” 
but they were also fortunate enough to be pres- 
ent on the great occasion of the summer, a most 
faithful representation of a tourney of the Mid- 
dle Ages. This was given by the Belgian cav- 
alry officers, and the horsemanship was superb, 
while the costumes were reproduced with the 
utmost exactitude, and some authentic suits of 
armor were worn by the knights. The specta- 
cle took place in the market square. The am- 
phitheatre of seats was erected around it, and 
the upper stories of the houses were rented to 
spectators. As Winnie said, they could hardly 
have seen a tournament more perfectly ren- 
dered if they had been present at those which 
King Arthur organized to tempt the ambi- 


94 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


tion and prowess of his Knights of the Table 
Round. 

The programme began with the grand entry 
of the performers. First came the four presi- 
dents of the tourney, who took the seats upon 
the judges’ stand ; then arrived various noble 
messengers bearing the demands of Oriental 
knights to take part in the tourney ; next the 
cortege of Spanish knights ; then Charles, Count 
of Egmont, with his train ; after him a wild 
procession, following the King of Ethiopia, con- 
sisting of negro children dressed as barbarians, 
playing on cymbals and dancing, a troop of 
Ethiopian horsemen throwing javelins and firing 
their long guns, followed by women on camels ; 
next came a company of Saracen knights in 
chain armor, with attendants in floating robes, 
and an Oriental queen on horseback, with three 
captive knights chained to her saddle-bow with 
golden chains. Following this group came the 
Belgian knights under Count Florent de Ber- 
laymont, Chevalier de la Toison d’ Or, and Milly 
repeated softly : 

“ Visions of tlie days departed, shadowy phantoms fill my 
brain ; 

They who live in history only seeai to walk the earth again. 


ANTWERP. 


95 


All the foresters of Flanders, mighty Baldwin Bras de Fer, 
Lyderick du Bucq and Cressy, Philip, Guy de Dampierre. 

I behold the pageants splendid that adorned those days of 
old ; 

Stately dames, like queens attended, knights who bear the 
fleece of gold.” 

Following the Belgians rode Cupid, mounted 
on a pretty white pony, leading with golden 
chains two captive queens on horseback. Also 
in Cupid's suite was a knight on foot, allowing 
himself, ‘‘for his love for Bradamante,” to be 
made the sport of two butfoons, who struck 
him with bladders which dangled from sticks, 
and mocked him with gibes. 

The girls were delighted with the brilliant 
spectacle. 

Winnie’s eyes glowed with excitement. 
“You can’t imagine what I am thinking of,” 
she said. 

“ Oh, yes, I can,” Milly replied, with a 
shrewd smile. “ You are thinking how nice it 
would be to get up a joyous entry of this kind 
in New York for the Messiah Home.” 

“ Tib will have an entertainment to manage 
this spring,” Winnie rexdied. “ I mean to take 
notes, and write her all about it. Watch close- 
ly ; we must not let any of the details slip, ” 


96 


WITCH WINNIE IN 110 L LAND. 


Just then there entered a company of Span- 
ish knights, under the command of the seigneur 
Jacques de Pimentel. As Winnie glanced 
carelessly over the programme at the assumed 
Spanish titles of the knights, with the true 
names of the young officers of the Belgian cav- 
alry who were playing the parts, she was aston- 
ished to read, ^^The very noble Knight Juan 
Bautista da Silva, represented by his lineal de- 
scendant, Lieutenant Dirk Van Pieterzoon.” 

‘‘ Why, that must be our fellow-passenger’s 
cousin,” she remarked ; and then, as she studied 
the sentence more carefully, a part of its true 
significance gradually dawned upon her. Sil- 
va !” she exclaimed. What if that should 
prove to be the original spelling of Mrs. Van 
Silver's name! It is possible, but then that 
would prove her ancestors Spanish and not 
Butch ; and where does her Va7^comein ? But 
this young man (who is Dutch by descent, 
although he has joined the Belgian army) an- 
nounces that he is a descendant of the Spanish 
Knight da Silva. I don’t understand it at all.’ ’ 
At the time of the Spanish domination there 
was a good deal of intermarrying in Holland,” 
said Mrs. Koseveldt. ‘ ‘ Perhaps the V an Pieter- 


ANTWERP. 


97 


zoons have a strain of Spanish blood in their 
veins.” 

That would seem to be a natural explana- 
tion,” Winnie replied ; but in that case, don’t 
you see, it may mean that the Yan Silvers of 
New York are related to the Yan Pieterzoons.” 

‘‘ Yery possibly, but certainly only very dis- 
tantly related ; and 1 do not see that it con- 
cerns us, or why you are so excited about it.” 

‘‘Because, if dear old Yan is a Pieterzoon, 
since he is a physician he may secure the leg- 
acy to the Yan Pieterzoon family, which they 
are so afraid of losing. How I wish I could 
' have three minutes’ conversation with that 
young officer ! It might straighten out every- 
thing.” 

“ I am afraid that this is only a romantic 
dream, my dear. You can talk it over with 
Mr. Yan Pieterzoon if you run across him when 
you are in Amsterdam, but at present I think 
we would better concentrate our attention on 
the tourney. See, the grand parade is over, 
the noble personages have taken their seats, 
and the knights who are to do battle have re- 
tired outside the lists. There, the heralds are 
announcing the second part of the programme.” 


98 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


The second part proved to be the more excit- 
ing, as in it were included all the games and 
combats. There was riding for the rings by 
lancers, and expert broadsword fencing on 
horseback, which had a frightfully realistic 
look, and made the girls cover their eyes dur- 
ing the clash of sabres. There was the joust 
for the privilege of proclaiming the Queen of 
Beauty, each knight taking part desiring to 
win this distinction for his lady. 

‘‘It is all a scene from the ‘ Idylls of the 
King,’ ” said Milly. 

“ Or ‘ Ivanhoe,’ ” replied Winnie. “ Just 
think how Sir Walter Scott would have enjoyed 
this !” 

When the Spanish knights contended in sin- 
gle combat against those of the spurs of gold, 
young Dirk Yan Pieterzoon, or, as his name 
appeared in the programme, Juan Bautista da 
Silva, was unhorsed, apparently thrust through 
by a spear, and lay under his horse’s hoofs, to 
the horror of the onlookers. The girls could 
hardly believe that this had all been planned 
and rehearsed in advance, and that the horse 
was really a circus performer, trained to the 
most careful exactitude in his dainty steps, and 


ANTWERP. 


99 


rather pleased than frightened by the applause 
of the vast assemblage. The servants ran for- 
ward, lifted the body of the knight and laid it 
across the saddle, and the horse turned and, 
entirely unguided, paced carefully from the 
lists with his seemingly lifeless burden. 

Mrs. Roseveldt gasped as Winnie dashed in 
her face a glass of lemonade which an attendant 
was offering for sale. The little lady had ac- 
tually fainted. ‘‘ How heartless to continue 
the entertainment after so shocking an acci- 
dent !” she said faintly. Let us leave the 
tourney at once.” 

Winnie tried to assure her that it was only 
acting : but as she was not quite sure upon that 
point herself, and Mrs. Roseveldt could not be 
convinced, they left before the last episode, in 
which it was announced that an unknown black 
knight, presumably Lancelot in disguise, would 
do battle with all challengers. 

They heard afterward that he successively 
unhorsed and apparently killed six opposing 
knights, to the great delight of the spectators. 
As the girls took the tram at the entrance to 
the exposition, they were all infinitely relieved 
to see the Spanish knight, no longer in the Da 


100 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Silva armor, but dressed in the equally becom- 
ing uniform of a Belgian lieutenant of cavalry, 
gayly bestriding his black horse, which was 
caracoling joyfully, well knowing that he was 
the observed of all observers. 

At that instant a puff of malicious wind tore 
Winnie’s Gainsborough hat from her head and 
wafted it down the street. The young officer 
gave rein to his horse and started in chase. 
After a lively scamper he caught up with it, 
and leaning far forward on his horse’s neck, 
and supporting himself by grasping his mane, 
he picked up the hat in true cowboy style 
without dismounting, and galloping back, re- 
stored it politely to its owner. 

Winnie stood so surprised, with her beautiful 
Titian hair Hooding her shoulders, that she 
could only murmur, “Thank you,” and did 
not realize, until after Lieutenant Yan Pieter- 
zoon had vanished, that she had made no in- 
quiry concerning the Da Silvas. 


CHAPTER yi. 


THE HAGUE. 


the departure of the 
steamer which car- 
ried our little party 
over seas, it will be 
remembered that a 
broken-hearted 
woman sat in her 
luxurious carriage 
watching with 
dry, straining 
eyes the scarf 
of smoke which 
streamed from 

the funnel as the ship steamed down the harbor. 
She gave no order to the coachman, and the 
carriage stood beside the dock until the last of 
the many friends who had come to bid the 
tourists hon voyage had returned from the 
pier. This last was an athletic young man 



102 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


without an overcoat, slapping himself to keep 
warm. He noticed the carriage, and springing 
to the door, exclaimed heartily, “ Well, mother, 
you see I did get here after all. What is the 
matter ? Are you ill ? How shockingly you 
look !” 

He sprang into the carriage and placed his 
arms around her. Mrs. Fitz- Simmons let her 
head droop for an instant on her son’ s shoulder, 
but she did not faint again. ‘‘ Tell James to 
drive home,” she said. ‘‘It is nothing now. 
I have had a great fright, Stacey dear. I 
thought I saw you on the deck of the steamer 
as it moved away. I think I must have lost 
my head for an instant ; for, of course, you 
could never leave me so without farewell, no 
matter how wildly you were in love. Could 
you, Stacey ?” 

The tears streamed down Mrs. Fitz-Simmons’s 
cheeks, and Stacey looked grave and troubled. 
“The dear little mother,” he said, “how 
thoughtless and selfish I have been ! The man 
you saw was probably John Nash, in my win- 
ter overcoat. I came down to see him off. He 
had only a thin, shabby thing, and I put mine 
right on him. He would have had pneumonia 


THE HAGUE. 


103 


the first day out if I hadn’t. Spring is coming 
now, and I can make my covert coat do for 
the rest of the season. I gave him my plush 
robe, too, for I found out when I called on 
him the other day that he had not pro- 
vided himself with a rug, and could not afford 
one.” 

‘‘ Nash, Nash,” said Mrs. Fitz-Simmons 
dreamily, ‘ ^ did you say that he is a man V ’ 

‘‘ Certainly, very much of a man. I only 
wish I had half his manliness. Why, you re- 
member him, mother. He was my man at 
Shinnecock. And do you know what he has 
done since ? He has worked hard and saved 
up enough to go abroad and study art for a 
year — at precious close calculation, to be sure. 
He had made up his mind to go over steerage. 
steerage! only think of that. Of course I 
couldn’ t allow it, and I drew out two hundred 
dollars from my account this morning. With 
one hundred I bought him a first-class passage 
as a good-by present. I wanted him to take 
the other hundred, too, but he wouldn’t, so 
here it is, and if you will stop at the bank. I’ll 
deposit it again as we go home.” 

Mrs. Fitz Simmons said nothing, but looked 


104 


WITCn WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


at her son with love and admiration shining 
through her tears. 

‘‘ Don’t look at me in that adoring way, 
mother. I really owed it to John Nash, to 
help him in his artistic career. He is a genius, 
and I encouraged him in the start, and received 
no end of undeserved praise for his pictures. 
You know he couldn’t be induced to join the 
class, but begged me to let him send in his 
sketches in my name. I ought not to have 
consented, but I thought that when I explained 
it all at the closing exhibition, it would be re- 
ceived as a good joke. Instead of that, I was 
covered with disgrace ; and, worst of all, lost — 
lost — but no matter, we won’t talk about that.” 

‘‘Yes, Stacey, we will,” Mrs. Fitz- Simmons 
replied. “ You do not know the anguish that 
comes to a mother from any lack of confidence 
on the part of her son. Tell me everything, 
dear boy — your joys and sorrows, your hopes 
and despairs, your good deeds and your sins. 
Let me know the best of you and the worst. 
Let there never be the slightest veil between 
our hearts again.” 

As she spoke a realization of something of 
what his mother had suffered came to Stacey, 


THE HAGUE. 


105 


and he raised her hand to his lips, saying, 
‘‘ I promise. Forgive me that I have caused 
you pain. We will live heart to heart after 
this. Yes, I have lost Milly, and I love her 
still.” 

And there never was any other girl, Stacey, 
whom you cared for or she thought you cared 
for 

Never.” 

‘‘Then, dear, it will all come right. I am 
certain that she cares for you, and that all that 
is needed is that you should have the oppor- 
tunity to come to an understanding. And you 
shall have it, Stacey. Where are they going V ’ 

“ To Laren, an art colony near Amsterdam. 
John Nash is going there, too.” 

“ So will we. I will write your father that 
as soon as you have graduated we will meet 
him in Amsterdam. That will suit your father 
as well as any other European city, and you 
can spend as much time as you wish with your 
friends at Laren. ” 

‘ ‘ Thank you, dear mother, but there is no 
hope in that direction. It happens, however, 
that I would like to visit Amsterdam. I became 
very much interested in yachts while I was off 


106 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


with my friend last summer, and this winter I 
have been taking an extra course in naval en- 
gineering. 1 like it better than anything I have 
tackled at college. I believe I could build 
yachts. Peter the Great went to Amsterdam 
to study ship-building, didn’t he ? At any 
rate, they have a line museum of models of all 
sorts of ships at Amsterdam, and I would like 
to poke about in it for a while. It is the only 
thing that I care the least about. I was talk- 
ing about it to John Nash. That fellow has 
such a lot of uncommon sense. I never treated 
him as a servant, but as a companion, and I 
believe he is the best friend I have. I managed 
to let off a little enthusiasm on the subject of 
yachts, and he slapped me on the back and 
said, ^ I always believed you’d make something. 
You never were worth a rap for art, but you 
are too good a fellow to be nothing but a swell.’ 
It was he who urged me to see the museum at 
Amsterdam, and then go into some technical 
school of naval architecture and study in ear- 
nest, and I believe I will.” 

This will please your father,” Mrs. Fitz- 
simmons replied. He was always disap- 
pointed that you did not care to enter the navy. 


THE HAGUE. 


107 


but he will be equally pleased if you become a 
naval architect.” 

‘‘I can see now,” Stacey replied, ‘‘that I 
had this desire way back at Shinnecock. I 
was always drawing boats then. They were 
correct drawings, and I appreciated their con- 
struction and the lines of beauty, but they were 
too much like diagrams ; there was no art in 
them.” 

The tears had long since dried from Mrs. 
Fitz-Simmons’s flushed cheeks. “Stacey,” 
she said, “ you have never before told me so 
much of your heart. 1 could not have believed 
an hour ago that I could ever be so happy as 
I am now. 1 believe that in the same wonder- 
ful way the clouds which now shroud your 
future will part, and you will begin a new life 
of aspiration and happiness.” 

“ Perhaps so, little mother, ” Stacey replied ; 
and though his voice had not the same ring of 
assurance, there was infinite confidence and love 
in the look with which he met her intense gaze. 

While mother and son were planning for a 
summer in Amsterdam and Laren, and a happy 
outcome from all misunderstanding, Milly was 
doing her best to thwart this pleasant plan. 


108 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


The party had left Antwerp on their way to 
Amsterdam, but had decided to pause for a 
short visit at the Hague. They found the 
sleepy royal city unexpectedly entertaining. 
Mrs. Rose veldt had brought letters of introduc- 
tion to a number of charming people both 
in artistic and court circles, and the aristo- 
cratic and cultured social life of the little city 
was greatly to her taste. They had stopped at 
an interesting and very comfortable hostelry, 
the Hotel Yieux Doelen, an old established 
house, once the club of the arquebusiers — 
meaning target, and doelen shooting gallery. 
The hotel faced a pretty square, the parade 
ground of the city. The Binnenhof, the Royal 
Palace, and the Mauri tshuis, or Picture Gallery, 
were near by. It was just aside from the pretty 
T)yr)a^ or fishpond, with its swans and green 
islands ; broad avenues shaded by handsome 
trees and lined by stately, dignified houses led 
in every direction. The city impresses one as 
did its society, as being select, wealthy, of an- 
cient pedigree, and very self-satisfied ; but at 
the same time not ostentatious, extravagant, or 
arrogant. There is much geniality and hos- 
pitality in those richly wainscotted old dining- 



(From painting by C. Bisschop.) 












THE HAGUE. 


109 


rooms, and the stranger, when properly pre- 
sented, feasts at the board. Mrs. Roseveldt 
had been properly presented, and handsome 
carriages, with servants in livery, rolled np to 
the door of the hotel, bringing their dignified 
owners, who vied with each other in attrac- 
tive invitations. Mrs. E-oseveldt had travelled 
extensively, but in no European city had she 
found herself in a more congenial atmosphere, 
and she regretted that they had not made their 
plans to remain here, instead of in the commer- 
cial city of Amsterdam and the obscure village 
of Laren. 

The society of Amsterdam, her new friends 
told her, could not compare with that of the 
Hague. It was still so early in the spring that 
the court had not deserted the city, and later 
the neighboring watering-place of Scheveningen 
would be the resort of fashion. Laren was 
simply impossible, merely a huddle of huts. 
She would die there of ennui, if she survived 
the poor cooking. All of these arguments had 
no effect upon Winnie and Milly, who had 
come to Holland for artistic work and not for 
society ; but other influences were at work 
which were to change their desires also. 


110 


WITCE WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Some of their friends had taken them to see 
Mesdag’s panorama of Scheveningen. ‘‘It is 
too early,” they said, “for you to gain any 
idea of the gayety of the watering-place in the 
season by visiting it now ; but Mr. Mesdag’s 
panorama is as good, even better than the place 
itself at this season.” 

Never has a more artistic panorama been 
produced. The girls sat on the little platform 
and looked away across the apparently long 
reach of level sands, to a returning fleet of flsh- 
ing-boats that were dropping anchor. The dark 
red sails were flapping, and the peasants were 
wading out with creels and baskets for their 
share in the abundant catch. “ It’s so good,” 
said Winnie, “ that I can almost sniff the salt 
air. How I would like to see more of Mes- 
dag’s pictures !” 

“You should see his studio and gallery,” 
said their friend. “ He has a wonderful collec- 
tion of the paintings of other artists. He is 
very rich, and a munificent art patron as well 
as an artist. ’ ’ 

Winnie sighed. “ Then, of course, he does 
not take pupils,” she said. “ 1 have no desire 
to be a marine painter, but I would like to 


THE HAGUE. 


Ill 


study for a time with a man who could teach 
me to paint skies and atmosphere as he does.” 

The best opportunity now offered for art 
study at the Hague,” said the other, ‘‘is with 
Mr. Zilcken.” 

“ What, Philip Zilcken, the etcher ?” 

“Yes, etcher and painter, and art critic and 
teacher as well, for he unites all four professions 
with admirable skill in each.” 

“We know him for his delightful etchings in 
America,” Winnie replied. “How 1 would 
like to meet him ! He must be an aged man, to 
have accomplished so much.” 

“ On the contrary, he is just at the height of 
his powers, a man not past middle life. He 
has achieved his widest reputation in Europe 
as a writer on art. His judgment is so ad- 
mirably just and kindly. It has been said, 
you know, that any fool can find fault, but it 
takes a master to appreciate. It is a delicate 
task for an artist to write of his fellows, but 
Zilcken is loved by all his mates, and he is 
most kindly and helpful to young art students. 
If you would like to call upon him, I am sure 
you would receive a hearty welcome, and his 
studio is only a little way from the Palace in 


112 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


the Wood, where you are going this after- 
noon.” 

Of course Winnie combined the two visits. 
They found the little palace or royal villa inter- 
esting, chiefly from its having been assigned to 
the historian Motley by the Queen of Holland, 
who insisted that he should be her guest while 
visiting the Netherlands. The girls were de- 
lighted to find that Motley’s histories were con- 
sidered superior to any written by native au- 
thors. His portrait, painted by the queen’s 
order by C. Bisschop, hangs in one of the rooms 
which he occupied during his stay. 

Leaving the palace, they drove through the 
grand old wood under arching, moss-covered 
trees, and beside tranquil waters, covered with 
lily-pads, to Philip Zilcken’s home, Helene 
Villa, named for the beloved wife whose recent 
death is so greatly deplored. They found him 
courteous and cordial, generously laying aside 
his work to do the honors of his studio. He 
showed them portfolio after portfolio of his 
etchings, explaining the process and the differ- 
ent stages. He told them how he etched directly 
from nature, as another artist would sketch, 
and then showed, with real delight in the work 


THE HAGUE. 


113 


of the artists which he had translated,” a 
portfolio of his reproductive etchings from the 
paintings of Maris, Israels, Mauve, and others. 
At the mention of Mauve, Winnie remarked that 
they were ardent admirers of this artist, and 
were on their way to Laren to study in his 
sketching grounds. 

Ah, if Mauve were only there !” Mr. Zilcken 
replied. He was my teacher— the teacher 
par excellence. There is no one like him left 
in Holland. But Laren without Mauve is no 
better than a hundred other villages. You 
would learn more by studying his pictures than 
by painting the identical trees and meadows 
from which they were evolved. Here is a little 
brochure which I have written as a tribute to 
my dear master. If you appreciate his work, 
you may care to glance it over. You will find 
Neuhuys and Kever still at Laren. They are 
true artists. After all, I believe you will find 
much to enjoy there ; but as for me, I could not 
bear to go there, now Mauve has gone.” 

Mr. Zilcken was full of kindly sympathy and 
helpful suggestions. He did not mention his 
own class, and the girls would not have known, 
from anything he said, that he was a teacher. 


114 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


As they drove back through the lovely vrood 
they noticed white umbrellas scattered before 
charming vistas, and realized for the first time 
that they had possibly defrauded his pupils of 
some of their master’s counsel. 

I don’t know but we are making a mis- 
take,” said Winnie. ‘‘ A man like Mr. Zilcken, 
who knew Mauve so intimately and understood 
his art so well, could transmit more of the spirit 
of the master than we could find haunting its 
old abiding -places.” 

On her return to the hotel she buried herself 
in the biographical article which Mr. Zilcken 
had written, and her enthusiasm was kindled 
by the enthusiasms and feeling of the writer. 
Her pencil marked, in order that she might read 
and read again such colorful passages as the 
following : 

How many works has Mauve created filled 
with the penetrating charm of a landscape, so 
well adapted to his delicate palette ! Sometimes 
the general effect is gay and warm, again the 
skies are veiled, delicate and fine, a gamut of 
extreme softness offering grays that one finds 
nowhere else, and lending themselves to the 
taste of one who preferred the finesse of tone 


THE HAGUE. 


115 


to the eclat of vivid color. He painted all the 
life of the country, simply, with such power of 
intimate penetration as no one had possessed 
before him. Where Millet saw grandeur and 
tragedy, Mauve was moved by tenderness. He 
is best known as a painter of sheep, of flocks 
wandering on the dunes in the moist fogs that 
alternately veil and disclose the black form of 
the shaggy shepherd dog or the lonely shep- 
herd, as Jules Breton has sung. ‘ In the pearly 
mist there appears vaguely in the distance a 
dark spot. It is the shepherd wandering amid 
his bleating flock, whose movements reveal 
their indistinct outlines, and the restless shadow 
of the worrying dog.’* 

Aside from the great number of his sheep 
pictures, what phase of peasant life has he not 
depicted ? Cows straying in sunny meadows 

* “ Dans la vapeur grisatre, 

Apparait an lointain 
Un point noir ; c’est le patre ; 

II vacile incertain ; 

Le mouvement revele. 

Les contours indecis 
De son troupeau qui bele 
Et du chien qui harcele, 

Sans repos les brebis.’' 


116 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


or in the shadow of silvery willows ; wood- 
cutters chopping mossy trunks ; peasants in 
white caps spreading their snowy linen on the 
grass ; patient horses drawing the massive barges 
along canals bordered with rushes, and the 
beach with its fishing boats and life of the sea. 
And how he loved to render the impression of 
the seasons ! Pensive winter evenings, with 
leafiess trees silhouetting their branches against 
the pale sky ; tender autumnal afternoons, when 
the rosy gold of the falling leaves vibrated in 
the sunshine ; spring evenings, with the after- 
glow of sunset touching with silver the grays 
of the calm dusk ; but always by preference a 
clouded sky, clear, luminous, illuminating 
softly, bathing all things in an atmosphere of 
mother-of-pearl. ” 

Winnie laid down the book with the excla- 
mation, I must study with that man— at least 
for a time. One who appreciates so vividly 
must be able to teach others to appreciate. 
But how can I make Milly feel in the same 
way ? She has fully made up her mind that 
Laren is the one spot for us.” 

While Winnie was speaking, or rather think- 
ing, an apparently insignificant collection of 


THE HAGUE. 


117 


objects had entirely revolutionized Milly’s feel- 
ings. She was entering the hotel when her 
attention was attracted by a steamer- trunk 
bearing the conspicuous label, ‘‘ Laren, near Am- 
sterdam.” She paused, looked more intently, 
and noticed lying on the steamer- trunk, rolled 
neatly in a shawl- strap, a familiar plush blanket, 
and an equally well-known overcoat with fur 
collar. At the same time the gargon came for- 
ward, and touching his hat, said : 

Excuse me, miss, but the gentleman that 
belongs to that luggage — ” This was always 
Jan’s way of expressing ownership. He had 
the transporting and the care of baggage, and 
to him it was vastly more important than its 
owners. “ The gentleman who belongs to that 
luggage stopped here over night, and when he 
saw your name on the hotel register he wanted 
to call on you and the other ladies, and he was 
much put out that you were out, miss. He’s 
gone now. He walked to the station, and left 
word for the luggage to come on the hotel 
stage. He said he hoped he would see you in 
Laren, miss. He is going there for the sum- 
mer. I asked for his card, but he said he 
hadn’t one, and it wasn’t necessary ; you would 


118 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


know who he was ; he had crossed in the same 
steamer. ” 

Milly was deeply indignant. So Stacey had 
really crossed the ocean on their steamer, but 
had not presented himself openly and court- 
eously during the entire voyage, and he now 
had the impertinence to go to the little village 
which he knew was their destination, and to 
count on meeting her in the old intimate way. 

What did it all mean ? There was some mys- 
tery about it which she could not fathom. 
Why should Stacey have left his college when 
so near graduation ? Why had he not spoken 
of it at the theatre party ? No, decidedly, un- 
til a great many things were explained she did 
not wish to meet Stacey. If she- could only 
persuade Winnie not to go to Laren ! Sud- 
denly an explanation suggested itself to her as 
possible, which filled her with a great fear. 
Stacey had said that the thought of her drove 
him mad. Could it be that he was insane, and 
that she was followed by a maniac ? She en- 
tered their pretty private parlor with a dis- 
traught look upon her fair face. Her mother 
sat at the little escritoire deeply absorbed in 
the reading of a letter, and Milly walked to the 


THE HAGUE. 


119 


window and stood silently looking out at the 
storks slowly circling around the spire of the 
Groote Kirk. 

Winnie tapped at the door and entered a few 
moments later, and Mrs. Roseveldt awoke from 
her reverie. Girls,” she said, “come here 
for a moment. Would it disappoint you both 
very much to put off going to Laren until late 
in the summer — perhaps entirely f ’ 

The girls were silent, each too surprised that 
matters were shaping themselves toward their 
desires to reply, and Mrs. Rose veldt continued, 
little dreaming how easy it would be to per- 
suade them : “ My dears, I have here a letter 
from the Baroness Van der Duck, in which she 
urges us to occupy her villa in Van Stolk Park 
while she is in Scheveningen. You know what 
a charming house you thought it. We could 
entertain and return some of the hospitality 
which we have received. Don’t you think you 
could make yourselves happy here for the sum- 
mer? They tell me it is very damp at Laren, 
and you know what a martyr I am to neu- 
ralgia.” 

Say no more, dear Mrs. Rose veldt,” Win- 
nie replied quickly. “ I am sure we can have 


120 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


just as good advantages here as at Laren. I 
was on the point of suggesting to Milly that we 
should join Mr. Zilcken’s class. What do you 
think, dear 

Just as you think best, mamma — you and 
Winnie, I mean, for I am sure that you will 
look after our material comfort, and Winnie 
will decide what is best for our artistic inter- 
ests.” 

You are always so sweetly yielding, Milly,” 
Winnie replied admiringly, and Milly felt like 
a hypocrite as she reflected how relieved she 
was that this change in their plans had come 
about so naturally. 

And so their art life in Holland began quite 
unexpectedly to them in the Hague, and in so 
far as their progress in painting was concerned, 
they had no cause to regret their decision, for 
they found Mr. Zilcken a most admirable 
teacher and a kind friend. There were other 
American and English girls who joined the 
class, whose companionship proved very pleas- 
ant and helpful. They sketched out-of-doors, 
chiefly in the beautiful wood near his residence, 
Winnie devoting herself to studies from cattle, 
and Milly to bits of landscape, bringing in by 


THE HAGUE. 


121 


preference some watery gleam of the little canal, 
with a flutter of soft yellow ducklings enliven- 
ing its surface, after the genre of that charming 
Dutch painter, William Maris. 

Mr. Zilcken was most helpful in his lessons 
in composition, in his hints of how to make 
pictures from their out-of-door literal studies. 
He enjoys, as we have already stated, the friend- 
ship of all of the principal artists of the Hague, 
and through his introduction, later on, the 
privilege of visiting several most interesting 
studios came to them. Mesdag’s was the most 
palatial, with its long suite of galleries fllled 
with the choicest paintings of other artists, and 
especially of the French school. There were 
many priceless Millets, Corots, Rousseaus, Yol- 
lens, Troyons, and Daubignys, and frequent 
examples of Diaz, Courbet, De Camps, with 
others by men whose work is nearer our own 
time, Bastien Le Page, Jules Breton, and many 
another ; always a picture bought because it 
was loved, and not because the dealer recom- 
mended it or the artist was the favorite of the 
hour. There were many paintings, too, by his 
fellow- artists of the Hague ; charming peasant 
studies by Artz (who has recently died), Israels’ 


122 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


masterly ‘‘Alone in the World,” which was 
shown at our Columbian Exhibition, and many 
another. There were paintings by his gifted 
cousin, Alma Tadema, and a few by his talented 
wife. Madam Mesdag Y an Houten. The maiden 
name of a married woman in Holland is written 
after her husband’s name, and in this way Miss 
Van Houten, in marrying Mr. Mesdag, did not 
lose all identity with her former life and repu- 
tation. Mrs. Mesdag is a gentle, unassuming 
woman, an admirable housekeeper in a palace 
whose bric-a-brac it must be no slight care to 
keep from dust. But all of the artist’s won- 
derful brasses and copper utensils shine like 
lambent flames, and moth and rust And no op- 
portunity to corrupt his priceless tapestries and 
antique armor. She made her reputation as 
an artist as a painter of flowers and still-life, 
magniflcent great canvases of flamboyant color, 
showing her a worthy successor of the old 
Dutch painters of still-life. One long gallery 
was filled with beautiful cabinets holding costly 
vases of jade or cloisonne or Venetian glass 
that had seiwed Madam Mesdag as models in 
her paintings. 

It was a visit long to be remembered, but 



Return of the Fishing Boats, 

(From painting by H. W. Mesdag.) 






THE HAGUE. 


123 


Winnie, much as she admired the rich collec- 
tion, was still more impressed by Mr. Mesdag’s 
own work — powerful marines, chiefly fishing- 
boats, depicted in every vicissitude that stress 
of weather or calm or favoring gale could occa- 
sion. Evidently Mesdag loved to paint the 
very weather itself, and has come nearer to de- 
picting invisible wind than any other artist. 

His glorious stormy skies are noted the world 
over. Milly looked at them with real awe. 

It seems to me,” she said afterward, ‘^that 
Mesdag must have had some mighty winged 
seraph to carry him out over the seas in the 
wake of the tempests. It makes me think of 
the lines, 

“ ‘ He plants his footsteps on the sea 
And rides upon the storm.’ ” 

So the days passed on, full of high endeavor, 
of hard work and rare privilege, and now the 
tender spring greens and grays were deepening 
into the rich, lush coloring of summer. This 
life had been outwardly a very happy one, but 
Milly was tormented by the vague dread which 
she told no one, the secret fear for Stacey’s 
sanity. It was not alone that he might reap- 
pear at any moment, dangerous in his frenzy. 


134 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


though that thought haunted her and made her 
heart stand still whenever in their sketching a 
stranger approached them. This physical fear 
was a terrible ordeal for one so timid as Milly, 
but the thought of what this meant for Stacey 
himself, of the wreck of his fine mind and pros- 
pects, was still more depressing to the unselfish 
girl. Fortunately this condition of mind did 
not last long, or she could not have endured it. 
Winnie received frequent letters from Van, who 
was working as earnestly at his profession in 
America. In reply to Winnie’s letter in regard 
to the YanPieterzoon da Silva matter, Yanhad 
written : Mother thinks it possible that our 
emigrating ancestor, Cornelis Yan Silver, may 
have been a relative of the Y an Pieterzoons, as 
that name occurred frequently in some family 
papers, which she is quite sure she gave you to 
carry with you.” 

Winnie laid down the letter with an exclama- 
tion of surprise. How stupid of me to have 
forgotten ! Why, I had them with me all the 
time, and might have shown them to the Mr. 
Yan Pieterzoon whom we met on the ship. To 
be sure, my trunk was down in the hold, but I 
could have had it brought up. And that was 


TEE HAGUE. 


125 


why the name sounded so familiar. I had seen 
it in those old papers. I certainly must see 
Mr. Van Pieterzoon ; but he lives in Amster- 
dam, and we have about decided not to go 
there. ’ ’ 

“ You might write him,” suggested Milly. 

Yes ; but I don’t like to trust these pre- 
cious family papers to the mail I think I will 
tell him that I have them, and that if he is 
passing through the Hague, I would be glad to 
show them to him.” 

There was something else in Van’s letter 
which Winnie was at first minded to show Milly. 
It would have cleared up the perplexity under 
which Milly was laboring, but of this Winnie 
knew nothing, and as certain remarks in the 
letter were not thoroughly complimentary to 
Milly, Winnie concluded not to read it to her, 
merely remarking that Van had seen Stacey 
during a recent visit to Cambridge. 

‘‘ Stacey in Cambridge !” Milly exclaimed. 

“ Why, yes at Harvard. Where else should 
he be 

Milly realized that Winnie had known noth- 
ing of her suspicions that Stacey had been a 
hidden passenger on the ship, and she was 


126 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


silent. It was a pity that she could not have 
then and there read the entire letter. 

I must tell you into what a fine fellow 
Stacey Fitz-Simnions has developed,” Van 
wrote. “ I had not seen him for several years, 
until we met at the dinner and theatre party 
which his mother gave the night before you 
left. The next day we met again at the dock, 
where I, of course, supposed he had come to 
see you off. He undeceived me at once. 
‘ Don’t tell Miss Roseveldt that I am here, ’ he 
said. ‘ I have no right to be here. She bade 
me good-by last night — good-by forever, and I 
have accepted my fate. I shall not trouble her 
by dogging her footsteps in a mawkish, un- 
manly way.’ 

“ ‘ Then, in the name of common sense, why 
are you here at all ? ’ I asked. ‘ Because,’ he 
replied, ‘ I want to see off my old friend, John 
Nash, who sails on the same steamer. He will 
be down in the steerage probably, and I will 
take leave of him there, where the Roseveldts 
will not see me. Don’t give me away, please.’ 
That was the reason I persistently kept you 
from the steerage end of the skii3 until all 
friends of the passengers were ordered ashore. 


THE HAGUE. 


127 


Then, just as I was leaving, I met a young man 
coming up the companion-way wearing the 
overcoat which Stacey had on a moment before, 
and carrying a carriage-robe which had been in 
his hands. I was so startled that I said, ‘ Why, 
here you are, after all, Stacey ! ’ and then I 
saw the man’s face, and knew that I was mis- 
taken. ‘ I am John Nash,’ he replied, ‘ but I 
don’t wonder you made the mistake. Mr. 
Fitz- Simmons has just given me his coat and 
rug. Wasn’t it good of him ? ’ ‘ But he said 

you were going steerage, ’ I replied. ‘ They 
won’t allow you in this part of the boat. ’ 

“ ‘ Yes, they will, with this,’ and he showed 
me a first-class ticket. ‘ Stacey made me ac- 
cept this, too. Did you ever see a fellow like 
him ? ’ I had not time to say that I had not 
the pleasure of knowing two of that kind, for, 
as it was, I was nearly carried away with you. 
When I left the pier I saw Stacey with his 
mother in their carriage, but they were so 
deeply absorbed in conversation that they did 
not notice me. I determined, however, that I 
would see more of him, so when I was called to 
Boston I went out to Cambridge and looked 
him up. He made me stay two days with him, 


128 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


to see the model of a yacht that he is at work 
upon. It seems that he has taken up the study 
of ship-building and naval engineering. It is 
something more than a fad with him ; it is a 
real passion. A prize has been offered for the 
best model of a racing yacht on new plans, and 
Stacey has entered for the competition. ‘ I am 
so absorbed in it, ’ he said, ^ that I can scarcely 
spend the necessary time on my other studies, 
and yet I know that I must do so to graduate 
with honor. I have found that I have some- 
thing to live for, after all, and I am putting my 
whole soul into it. ’ The model seemed to me 
very perfect, and I would not be surprised if it 
was awarded the prize. I have written all this 
because I know that you are interested in 
Stacey, and will be pleased to know that he is 
doing so well. It may be just as well not to 
tell Miss Rose veldt that her rejection is the 
very best thing that could have happened to 
Stacey. It has made a man of him.” 

All of this Milly came to know long after, 
but it would have saved her much mental be- 
wilderment if she could have learned the truth 
then. 

‘‘ When did Yan see Stacey ?” was her only 


THE HAG TIE. 


129 


question, and Winnie gave the date. It was 
just at the time that Milly imagined that he 
had inquired for her at the hotel. ‘‘Was he 
well V ’ she asked. 

“ Perfectly, and doing well, it seems. Yan 
says that he has turned out to be a regular 
grind, and is likely to win a prize for a design 
of a yacht which he has made.” 

In one way the information lifted a great 
load from Milly’s mind. It was evident that 
Stacey had not gone insane from love of her, 
and that he had not followed her to Europe. 
She need no longer fear the sudden appearance 
of a maniac waiting in some lonely place to kill 
her. She was very glad for Stacey’s sake, and 
immensely relieved for her own. She had be- 
come very timid, almost hysterical, and her 
friends little knew of the horror in which she 
had lived during the few past weeks. Still, it 
was not all quite clear to her yet. If Stacey’s 
mind was not affected, what of her own ? She 
had been certain that he was near her ; had 
she been insane instead of Stacey ? If so, she 
was in her right mind now. Stacey was in 
America ; she would be the dupe of no more 
illusions. 


130 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAED. 


She came out of her absorption with a little 
laugh, saying to herself, in what seemed to 
Winnie an utterly inconsequential manner, As 
things have turned out, we might just as well 
have gone to Laren.” 

But they were settled so pleasantly, that even 
now they did not immediately leave the Hague. 
A great source of pleasure to them here, which 
we have not yet mentioned, was the Museum 
of Paintings. This gallery has been made up 
in great part of collections formed by the princes 
of the House of Orange. The great majority 
(three hundred out of the four hundred and fifty) 
of the paintings are by Hutch artists. Hem- 
brandt’s masterpiece, “ The Anatomy Lesson,” 
and Paul Potter’s ‘‘ Bull” are the two gems of 
the collection. In the first Nicolas Tulp, the 
celebrated professor, is engaged in explaining 
the anatomy of the arm of a corpse to the mem- 
bers of the Guild of Surgeons. Notwithstand- 
ing the ghastliness of the subject, the picture is 
not revolting. The attention of the observer is 
fastened, not by the subject on the dissecting- 
table, but by the living interest and character 
in the faces of the group who are listening with 
rapt attention to the lecturer. Before this 


THE HAGUE. 


131 


‘r ^ 

painting, and before the other portraits by 
Kembrandt in this collection, onr students felt 
themselves in the presence of genius, which far 
exceeded the talents, remarkable as they were, 
of the other painters. There was much to ad- 
mire in the technique of the old genre painters. 

The tavern subjects of the Fleming, Teniers, 
Jan Steen, and others of his ilk, were, many of 
them, so coarse that the girls could not enjoy 
the marvellous skill with which they were de- 
picted, but they found themselves greatly at- 
tracted by Terburg’s refined pictures of domes- 
tic life, and by Gerard Dow’ s minuteness of fin- 
ish. It has been said that Terburg, Metsu, and 
Netscher “ are generally known as stuff painters, 
owing to the attention they bestow upon dra- 
peries, especially silks and satins ; but they 
were not mere imitators of texture, and were 
capable of emotion, and could give utterance 
to the sentiments of romance. ’ ’ The costumes 
of the time, especially men’s costumes, were 
far more beautiful than those of our own 
day. The Netherlands led Europe in its manu 
factures : velvet of Utrecht, Brussels lace, 
Dutch linen~‘‘A fitting present,” says Mot- 
ley, for kings to make and to receive” — tapes- 


132 


WITCH WINNIH IN IIOLLAKlX 


tries of Arras, brocades of gold and silver 
thread, stamped leather, wonderful wood-carv- 
ing, the cutting and setting of precious stones, 
and the work of the silversmith. There was 
one creamy white satin dress of Terburg’s that 
reminded Milly of Edgar Fawcett’s lines ; 

“ No moonlit pool is lovelier than the glow 
Of this bright, sensitive texture, nor the sheen 
On sunny wings that wandering sea-birds preen 
And sweet of all fair draperies that I know, 

To mark the smooth tranquillity of flow. 

Where shades of tremulous dimness intervene, 

Shine out with mutable splendors, mild, serene, 

In some voluminous garment white as snow.” 

They had neighbors, the noted artists Mr. and 
Mrs. Bisschop, whose home in Van Stolk Park 
near their own seemed a survival of the old 
splendid days of the Netherland Kenaissance, 
of the time before the troubles of Spanish perse- 
cution and peculation. There are certainly few 
houses anywhere so richly filled with antique 
furniture and objects of art. It was as though 
a house belonging to the Middle Ages had 
been preserved by magic, with nothing lacking 
necessary at that period either for comfort or 
luxury. Each room was an “ interior,” ready 
to be painted with treasures of carvings and 


THE HAGUE. 


i33 


paintings, glints of porcelains and fiery reflec- 
tions from bits of polished copper lighting up 
the rich darkness of the opulent greens, cobalt 
bines, and tawny ochres of the old tapestry 
hangings. 

In the dining-room was an illuminated motto, 
very pretty in its quaintness, and yet holding 
a warning truth which fixed itself in the mem- 
ory of the girls : Godt geeft de vogeln den 
kost, maar zie moeten an am vliegen” (‘‘God 
gives the birds their food, but they must fly 
for it”). 

They became quite intimate with their neigh- 
bors, and one day Mrs. Bisschop told Milly the 
history of a superb Venetian mirror which she 
had much admired, more especially for its ex- 
quisite ornate frame, on which baby loves, in 
high relief, were disporting in charming atti- 
tudes. 

“ It is the gift of that lovely woman. Queen 
Carmen Sylva,” said Mrs. Bisschox). I 
the honor of giving her lessons in painting at 
her villa of Monrepos. I found that she needed 
practice in drawing, and advised her not to 
paint until she had arrived at greater profi- 
ciency. One day, however, she made an ad- 


134 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


mirable study in oil of some white roses, which 
I praised highly. What was my annoyance to 
find, at the next lesson, that the queen was 
busily engaged in adding a huge bunch of hid- 
eous red roses, from a bouquet which had just 
been sent her, entirely spoiling the simple 
study which I had so much liked. I was so 
vexed that I threw the vulgar bunch of flaunt- 
ing, cabbagy vegetables out of the window, and 
told the queen that she would better conflne 
herself to drawing for some time longer. The 
queen yielded very gracefully, and I had the 
pleasure of advancing her to colors soon after ; 
but she showed that she had not forgotten the 
discipline or taken it amiss, for this beautiful 
mirror came to me as my Christmas-box. Do 
you notice, at the base of the frame, the queen 
has had designed a little love holding aloft a 
palette and brushes, for which another baby 
love is pleading with outstretched hands, and 
that the frame is crowned with more childish 
figures, one of which is angrily showering roses 
in every direction f ’ 

The girls’ life at the Hague was almost en- 
tirely filled with art, but not quite. Winnie 
was intensely eager to sift the matter of the 


THE HAGUE. 


135 


Yan Pieterzoon da Silva genealogy, and was 
disappointed on receiving a letter from Mrs. 
Yan Pieterzoon, of Amsterdam, saying that 
her husband had been called to South Af- 
rica, and would not return for some months, 
when probably it would be too late to investi- 
gate this matter in time to comply with the 
conditions of the will. Mrs. Yan Pieterzoon 
had, however, requested the family lawyer. 
Mynheer Yoorhelm Hoogstraten, to communi- 
cate with them, and they might expect to hear 
from him soon. 

Days passed, and the lawyer neither appeared 
nor wrote ; perhaps he, too, was on a journey 
to the ends of the earth on his own affairs, and 
Winnie began to despair. One day, most un- 
expectedly, a clew Avas afforded to the tangle. 
The streets of the Hague were decorated with 
all the bunting in the possession of its house- 
holders. The city was en fete^ for there was to 
be a grand ball in honor of the child- queen, 
Wilhelmina. Mrs. Rose veldt was in raptures, 
for she had received invitations for herself and 
the girls. For days she had been in consulta- 
tion with one of the court dressmakers. She 
had even thought of ordering dresses from Don- 


136 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


cet’s, in Paris. Winnie had declined to go, 
since she could not afford the luxury of a 
gown ; but Mrs. Poseveldt, quite unknown to 
her, had had one made, and Winnie was fairly 
entrapped, for the dress would be wasted and 
Mrs. Roseveldt’s feelings hurt if she persisted 
in not attending the festivity. 

In her heart she rebelled against the waste of 
time, but the ball turned out to be a most for- 
tunate link in the long chain of the events of 
the summer. 

They had scarcely taken their places in the 
royal salon when Winnie noticed a young man, 
in highly ornamented uniform, who was regard- 
ing her with marked attention. She caught 
Milly’s arm, and whispered, There is the offi- 
cer who took the part of the Spanish k night' 
in the tournament at Antwerp.” 

The recognition had been mutual, and a few 
moments later the young man (who had dis- 
covered a mutual acquaintance in their party) 
was brought up and presented in due form. 
The incident which had caught his attention 
had been his chase for Winnie’s hat at the en- 
trance to the exposition, and this trifling occur- 
rence led the conversation naturally to the part 


THE HAGUE. 


137 


he had taken in the jousts. He danced several 
tines with Winnie, and during the intervals 
she told him of her acquaintance with his 
cousin, Mr. Piet Van Pieterzoon, of Amster- 
dam, their fellow-voyager, and of the Van Silver 
papers. These he begged to see, and having 
obtained Mrs. Roseveldt’s permission to call, 
appeared the next day. He was much excited 
on reading them, for they seemed to prove to 
him conclusively that the Van Silvers of New 
York were the long-lost American branch of 
the family. 

Do you think there is any young man in 
that family,’’ he asked eagerly, ‘‘ who could be 
induced to come to Leyden and fulfil the con- 
ditions of the will 

I think so,” Winnie replied demurely. 

Then write him to come at once. Cousin 
Dirk called on me in Antwerp just before he 
sailed, and I promised him that for the sake of 
the family interests involved I would sacrifice 
myself and give up my commission in the army 
to study medicine at Leyden. That would 
be a living death for me. Our old ancestor 
who made that eccentric will is one of the sur- 
geons whose portrait figures in Kembrandt’s 


138 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


‘ Anatomy Lesson ’ in the Picture Gallery here. 
I never fail to visit the Museum when I come 
to the Hague to shake my fist at the old rascal. 
Oh, if this American cousin could only be the 
ram caught by his horns in the bushes, to be 
sacrificed instead of Isaac, how gladly would 
this Isaac skip away from the family sacrifice ! 
Send for him — send for him at once, my dear 
young lady ; let us have him enter the univer- 
sity without delay. ” 

But you forget,” Winnie replied, ‘‘ this 
young man cannot afford to leave his practice, 
and do this on an uncertainty. Your belief 
that he is a relative is very encouraging, but it 
is not proof. I must wait until I have the 
opinion of your cousin’s lawyer. Mynheer Hoog- 
straten.” 

The young man groaned. “ And he will 
be dead against the whole thing. ’ ’ 

‘‘ Why so ?” 

He is interested in having things remain as 
they are. You see, he is a friend of mine, and 
1 would be richer if I accepted Cousin Piet’s 
proposition to study medicine than if I let this 
other chap do it ; but it is loathsome to me. 
When I look at that painting of Rembrandt’s, 


THE HAGUE. 


139 


and see my ancestor with his other learned 
friends at their ghoulish task of carving up that 
corpse, my flesh creeps, and I turn sick.” 

‘‘ But you are a soldier. Is it not as repul- 
sive to carve human flesh with the sword as 
with the lancet 

‘‘No, indeed ; that is in the excitement of 
battle, when the other man has his chance at 
you ; but to coldly set my knife among the quiv- 
ering, trembling nerves and arteries of a help- 
less patient, or in the repulsive body of a corpse 
— oh, no, no !” 

“ Well, if you feel so, why does not your 
friend, the notary, take your view of the case 

“ Because 1 am betrothed to his daughter, 
Jacoba Sophia Hoogstraten, a lovely girl, for 
whom I would do much ; and he withheld 
his consent until Cousin Piet proposed this 
arrangement. Then, when he saw that 1 would 
come into a nice little fortune, he suddenly 
became all willingness, and our engagement was 
announced.” 

“ And how does your betrothed feel about 
it?” 

“ She loves me, and consequently feels as I 
do. Moreover, she admires the army. It wa^ 


140 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


my uniform which first caught her fancy, and 
she would like the romance change and ex- 
citement of a soldier’s life. She has lived a 
quiet life, poor thing, and hoped I might be 
ordered to the colonies for our bridal tour ; and 
to help me make pills in Leyden or in some 
other Dutch town would be as little to her taste 
as to mine. It is decided. I will not. Pro- 
duce our American cousin — produce him at 
once !” 

But how shall we prove his pretensions % 
Shall I send these family papers of his to 
Mynheer, your proposed father-in-law V ’ 

‘‘You might as well put them in the fire. I 
am glad I turned up in time to prevent such a 
disaster. But Cousin Piet will be just ; on his 
return he will settle everything.” 

“ Then it will be too late.” 

“ True. Well, there is one other person who 
may help you, and she is my great-aunt, 
Amalia, who lives in Leyden. She is the de- 
positary of all we know about our ancestry, 
and she has always been rather proud of the 
Spanish strain in our blood. She calls herself 
Da Silva Van Pieterzoon, and says we ought 
all to write our names in that way, I went to 


THE HAGUE. 


141 


her when I thought of representing my Spanish 
ancestor at the tourney, and she gave me all 
the information necessary. I will give you a 
letter to Aunt Amalia. Yes, decidedly ; you 
must visit her. How pleased she will be with 
this diary of Cornelis Yan Silver, as he calls 
himself after reaching America ! You see in 
these deeds of sale of his Leyden property, 
before he emigrated, the name is written in the 
same hand, Cornelis da Silva Yan Pieterzoon, 
just as my great-aunt says it should be written 
to this day. That circumstance alone will 
make her your friend. You see that emigra- 
tion was the split in the two families. The 
Americans dropped the Pieterzoon and the 
Dutch descendants the Da Silva, and the re- 
sult is two distinct names. By the way, I 
don’t see any seal or other representation of 
our coat- of -arms. It is a peculiar one. Do 
you happen to know what it is ?” 

“ It is painted on a family clock, an heirloom 
in the Yan Silver family— a tree torn up by 
the roots, with a gambolling calf for a crest.” 

Perfect, perfect ! Write my American 
cousin to unscrew that clock face and pack it 
in his portmanteau. I carried the same device 


142 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


on the pennon on my spear. It is on the 
panels of Cousin Piet’s carriage, only they’ve 
changed the calf to a leopard passant as more 
dignified, or because some illuminator drew so 
badly that its identity could not be distin- 
guished. But Aunt Amalia has always per- 
sisted that the original beast was a calf, and 
she will tell you why. Write me after you 
have seen Aunt Amalia, and we will have an- 
other council of war ; and, in the mean time, 
pray, prepare the American cousin to be sum- 
moned on short notice.” 

The young man shook hands warmly on part- 
ing. I wish that you belonged to this family 
whom we are to welcome as our relatives,” he 
said. I would like to be able to call you 
cousin. Are you sure that you are in no way 
related to them ?” 

‘‘ Not in the slightest degree,” Winnie re- 
plied ; and young Dirk Yan Pieterzoon won- 
dered what she meant when she added, smiling 
very sweetly, No, I am not a Yan Pieterzoon ; 
but if this matter turns out as we wish, I think 
you may call me cousin all the same.” 

The young officer, though not absolutely dull, 
was nevertheless not quick-witted enough to 


THE HAGUE 


143 


understand the information which Winnie had 
intended to convey, and he went away sorely 
troubled. ‘‘I told her I was engaged,” he 
said. I did not leave her a peg to hang a 
hope upon ; but I am so confoundedly hand- 
some in my uniform, that the girls can’t help 
falling in love with me. But, no, I will resist. 
I will be true to my Jacoba Sophia. Whatever 
happens, 1 will never call her cousin.” 


CHAPTER VII. 


A SKETCHING TOUR. 


warm summer days 

^ ■ \ had come, and Mrs. 

H Roseveldt abandoned 

the pretty villa and 
established herself at 
Scheveningen, at the 
Grand Hotel des 
Bains, and to profit 
by Mr. Zilcken’s 
lessons, the girls 
were obliged ev- 
ery day to make 
the long trip on 
the tramway. Occasionally he brought the 
class out to them, and they met on the seashore 
and sketched the fishing-boats, or hired some 
picturesque fishwife to pose for them with her 
creel on her hip or shoulder. Milly became 
friendly with the peasants, and would visit their 






A SKETCHING TOUE. 


J45 


uncomfortable little huts, always leaving some 
joyful souvenir of her coming. 

She had always loved peasant interiors as 
painted by Dutch artists, and through the priv- 
ileges which Mr. Zilcken’ s friendship had made 
possible, she had studied at the Hague the 
manner of work of two of the characteristic 
painters of the peasant life of Holland. The 
first was Josef Israels, who paints with such 
mastery all the gloom and tragedy of the life 
of the very poor. Milly was fascinated by his 
gloomy paintings— gloomy in color, and darker 
still in subject and feeling. She had no desire 
to imitate them, but she was thrilled in their 
contemplation as by the reading of a powerful 
story of Tolstoi’s or Zola’s, and she felt her 
eyes suffuse with tears and her heart burn with 
revolt that human beings must lead such lives 
of privation, ignorance, and misery in God’s 
beautiful world. The second painter of peasant 
life viewed his subjects from a different stand- 
point. 

Blommers is an optimist, a happy, affection- 
ate man. All of his views of the outside world 
are colored by his own domestic experience ; so 
when he shows us “ the huts where poor men 


146 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


lie,” they are always illumined with some sug 
gestion of love and self-sacrifice that throws a 
kindly sunbeam across the gloom. Blommers’s 
interiors are not all studied from the homes of 
real peasants. At the end of his studio he has 
had built a low-ceiled dark room, with fire- 
place and the poor furnishings of a peasant’s 
house — a shelf of coarse blue Delft, a quaint 
cradle, and a rich brown coloring in the Avails, 
as of old stained timber, with a cross light from 
the greenish panes of a little window, with a 
shelf for plants, and cheap scrap of curtain. 
But in these surroundings Blommers would 
pose a widower, clumsily trying to feed his 
baby, and surrounded by a troop of pretty, 
blond headed children, or an old woman, not 
desolate and alone, but teaching her little grand- 
daughter to knit, or tenderly waited upon by 
the same white- capped little maiden — enough 
of pathos to touch the heart, but enough of 
affection, too, to satisfy it. 

The girls found the same qualities in the paint- 
ings of Artz, who died recently. The little 
shop kept by his widow, at No. 19 Laan Yan 
Meedervoort, was a favorite resort of theirs. 
Mr. Zilcken told them a pretty story about its 



Motherless. 

(From painting by D. A. C. Artz.) 




A SKETGHINO TOUtt. 


147 


opening, which spoke well of the fraternal feel- 
ing existing among the artists at the Hague. 

Artz had been a kindly, hospitable man in 
his lifetime, feasting his fellows at his board, 
and never refusing a call for charity. He had 
lived as the birds live, neither sowing nor gath- 
ering into barns, and when he died suddenly, 
still a young man, there was no money put 
aside for his widow. But he had been a worker, 
and there were a good many unsold pictures, 
and Mrs. Artz held a sale in her parlors. Then 
it was that Artz’s fellow-artists did a beautiful 
thing. Each brought a picture of his own to 
add eclat to the collection, and Mr. Mesdag set 
the tide of connoisseurs in the direction of the 
sale by himself buying largely. Mrs. Artz did 
a rushing business for a few days, and showed 
herself a woman of no mean business ability, 
whereupon the artists held a little council and 
decided to keep Mrs. Artz supplied with paint- 
ings to sell on commission, with the result that 
at her little picture- shop one can frequently 
pick up better examples of modern Dutch art 
than anywhere else in the Hague. 

Jacob Maris, whose romantic landscapes are 
so popular that they are ordered by dealers 


148 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


long before they are completed, never leaves 
Mrs. Artz without a specimen of his delightful 
work, and in some way it is not the commercial 
picture” that finds its way into her little par- 
lors. It is as though the gentle ghost of Artz 
still haunted the rooms and his brothers were 
ashamed to place before its clear gaze any but 
their best work. 

Just as Winnie had come to the conclusion 
that she must go to Leyden and hunt up Mejuf- 
frouw Van Pieterzoon, and all Milly’s objec- 
tions to Laren had been swept away, and even 
Mrs. Roseveldt was willing to confess that she 
had had all the society she wished — j ust at this 
favorable juncture Mr. Zilcken proposed a 
sketching tour. 

‘‘We will go first to Katwyk,” he suggested, 
“ then by way of Leyden and Haarlem to Am- 
sterdam, where we will spend a few days study- 
ing the jjaintings at the Hyks Museum, and 
then we will sketch for a time near the city, 
either at Marken, where are to be found the 
quaintest costumes in Holland, or at Laren, 
where there is a delightful artist colony.” 

This proposition was accepted with alacrity 
by the larger part of the class, and the first re- 


.1 SKETCHING TOUR. 


140 


move was made in early July. Katwyk is a 
plainer watering-place than Scheveningen, only 
six miles from Leyden, with which it communi- 
cates by steamer and by tramway. It is noted 
for its great sluice-gates at the mouth of a 
canal leading from the Rhine to the sea, and 
its imposing dykes, which at high tide protect 
the country from the sea. It seemed very odd 
to them all at first to look up and see the ships 
sailing on the other side of the dyke at a higher 
level than that on which they were standing. 
They could appreciate the heroic struggle which 
Holland has maintained against the sea. We 
have all noticed how many of the names of 
Dutch cities end in dam — Amsterdam, Rotter- 
dam, Zaandam, Edam, Schiedam, Leerdam, 
Spaarndam, and many others — but perhaps we 
have not realized that the town was so named 
because situated at ar dam of the river suggested 
by the first part of the name. A most admira- 
ble book, ‘‘ Brave Little Holland,” by William 
Elliot Griffis, gives in brief compass the details 
of the evolution of the physical and political 
Holland, and draws our attention to many of 
these suggestive peculiarities of names, in 
which a history is sometimes epitomized in a 


150 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


word. It tells iis how the coats-of*arms of the 
towns tell of this constant fight and victory 
over water. Rotterdam’s arms are silver and 
green, a river between fields, the crest of Zee- 
land, a lion riding the waves, with the words, 

Luctor et emergd"^ (‘‘I straggle, but I 
emerge”). 

Canals and dykes, dykes and canals were 
everywhere characteristic features of the land- 
scape. The great canals served as roads and 
highways, the small as fences dividing prop- 
erty, and both as drains to the water-sogged 
land. Windmills were constantly seen, some 
of them used to pump water from a lake or 
flooded district into the canals, and others for 
sawing lumber or grinding grain. They were 
so common that they ceased to seem pictur- 
esque, and the students would not take them 
into account in choosing a subject for a sketch 
unless there was an unusually ancient one in 
the neighborhood. They were, roughly speak- 
ing, of two styles : the Holland windmill proper 
being a round tower of brick, with vanes of 
painted sailcloth stretched on iron, the Belgian 
mill a more picturesque and primitive affair, re- 
sembling a log cabin or corn-bin mounted on stilts. 


A SKETCHING TOUR 


151 


The peasants at Katwyk dressed more elabo- 
rately than the fishwives of Scheveningen. 
They wore pretty lace caps with a strange metal 
skull-cap inside, and filigree stick-pins with 
golden ornaments, like earrings, dangling on 
each side of the face. They had a buxom, well- 
to-do look, which told of easier lives than the 
hungry-faced children of the sea, and were often 
not only pretty, but saucy, laughing, and 
chaffing over their half -work, half -pi ay, the 
whole day long. It seemed to Winnie that the 
Dutch housewife was always busy, always 
hustling her family about, and whenever there 
was nothing else to do, she insisted on their 
dashing tubs of water upon the fioor and walls, 
and scrubbing. 

Why they don’t all die of pneumonia, con- 
sumption, or whooping-cough, I am sure I can- 
not tell,” said Milly ; ‘‘for it must be very 
unwholesome to live in such damp houses.” 

They had settled themselves in a pleasant 
little inn, and had begun sketching on the very 
day of their arrival, and Winnie was so inter- 
ested in her work that she continually put oif 
going to Leyden to call on Mejuffrouw Yan 
Pieterzoon. They had passed through the city 


152 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


on their way to Katwyk, but had made no stop, 
though the place had impressed them pleas- 
antly with its sightly burg” in the centre. 

A pretty peasant girl came every day to pose 
for them in her Tclrmesse., or holiday fair cos- 
tume. Winnie had posed her on the top of the 
dyke waving her apron to an imaginary boat. 
An old lady who lived in the next country 
house, an absurd little construction, with 
‘‘Mijn Lust en Leven” in ornamental letters 
over the gate, was much interested in their pro- 
ceedings, and watched them at first from her 
window through a long spy-glass, but grad- 
ually, her curiosity getting the better of her, 
she strolled carelessly in her garden, always 
stopping at the nearest point to gaze at the 
group from over her hedge. The motto over 
the gate was a custom frequently adopted by 
the owners of country houses. In this instance 
it signified ‘‘ My pleasure and life,” but the 
girls not knowing the fashion, imagined it to 
be the name of the owner, and always spoke of 
the old lady as Miss Lucy Leven. 

Miss Leven” could not imagine why the lit- 
tle peasant girl should be forever signalling 
some one at sea. She concluded finally that 


A SKETCHING TO UK. 


153 


they wished to secure a pleasure-boat to go out 
in, and as they had such poor success in their 
attempts to attract the attention of the boatmen 
she resolved to help them, and came to their 
aid one afternoon armed with a speaking-trum- 
pet, and was much disgusted when Winnie 
explained that it was only make-believe for a 
jncture. On another day it happened that the 
little Dutch maiden did not come, and as her 
gala costume had been left at the inn, Milly 
donned it and posed for Winnie. 

‘‘ Miss Lucy Leven is beckoning to me from 
over the hedge,” she said to Winnie. May I 
leave long enough to see what she wants 

Miss Leven addressed her in Dutch (m ich to 
Milly’ s surprise, for she had spoken to them in 
English the day before), and held out to her at 
arm’s length an odd little cage, which Milly 
supposed contained a bird or some pet animal. 
Seeing that she was expected to take it, Milly 
grasped the cage, only to drop it instantly, for 
it was quite hot. The old lady seemed very 
angry at her stupidity, and scolded her roundly. 
The cage was a stoofje, or foot-stove, which 
the old lady had her servant carry before her 
to church every Sunday, and which she had 


154 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


offered Millj, as she was fearful that she might 
take cold from standing so long on the damp 
ground. She supposed, not unnaturally from 
her costume, that she was a Dutch girl, and 
this was why she had addressed her in Dutch. 
If Milly had but known, she had also inveighed 
very sternly against the selfishness and thought- 
lessness of these giddy Americans, who made 
poor girls risk their health by doing such sense- 
less things. Milly picked up the foot-stove by 
the handle, and grasping the situation at the 
same time, thanked Miss Leven with a pretty 
courtesy and smile, and carried the stoofje 
back to the spot where she had been posing. 
Here, as she was standing in wooden sabots 
and felt no need of its kindly warmth, she gave 
it to Winnie, who made use of it unconsciously, 
and further augmented the old lady’s indigna- 
tion against her heartlessness. When Milly 
returned the object, she called her in, and in- 
sisted on her drinking some hot mulled wine and 
eating some Tcaneel-koekjes (cinnamon cakes). 
Out of mischief, Milly did not undeceive her, 
and as Miss Leven was a good talker herself, 
she remarked on Milly’ s taciturnity, Only to 
think what a respectful child it was not to be 


A SKETCIIINQ TOUR. 


155 


thrusting in remarks when its elders were 
speaking.” 

As their stay a Katwyk drew near to its 
close, Winnie tore herself from her absorbing 
sketching and took the tram to Leyden to look 
up Mejuffrouw Yan Pieterzoon. What was her 
disappointment to find the respectable brick 
house closed for the summer. It was evident 
that its owner had gone, and Winnie might 
have had no clew as to her whereabouts had it 
not occurred to her to inquire at an apothecary’s 
shop, which seemed to be a sort of annex to the 
mansion. As elsewhere in Holland, the shop 
was designated, not by a mortar and pestle, 
but by a gaper y or painted wooden head of a 
Moor. There was a rusty sign under the head 
explaining that Dr. Van Pieterzoon would re- 
ceive his patients in the back parlor at certain 
hours. Winnie boldly entered and inquired 
for Dr. Silva Van Pieterzoon, her heart quak- 
ing, for if a physician of that name had been 
found there was no hope for Van. The drug- 
gist’s clerk laughed at her inquiry. 

‘‘ That Dr. Van Pieterzoon was long ago re- 
ceived by his patients in heaven,” said the 
clerk. He had sent them all on before him. 


156 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


like most doctors, but his granddaughter will 
not allow the sign to be taken down, though 
there’s not a doctor by that name in all Hol- 
land. She says one will come, and I will yet 
live to make out his prescriptions.” 

Where is Mejuffrouw Van Pieterzoon ?” 
Winnie asked. 

‘‘ Why, at her huite uplaats [country house] 
at Katwyk, of course,” and the boy wrote the 
address on a card and handed it to her. 

This was encouraging news, and after a turn 
about the city to visit the museums, and the 
hall of the university with its portraits of 
its famous professors, from Scaliger down to 
those of the present day, and a glance at the 
hot-houses in the great Botanic Garden, Winnie 
returned to Katwyk. 

Milly was interested in the account of her 
search, and looking at the card which Winnie 
handed her, exclaimed, Why, she must live 
with our peculiar neighbor !” There was the 
inscription under Miss Van Pieterzoon’ s name, 

Mijn Lust en Leven.” 

‘‘You must go with me, Milly, for Miss 
Leven is already interested in you as a little 
Dutch girl, and if Mejuffrouw Van Pieterzoon 


A SKETCHING TOUR. 


157 


lives with her, it will be nice to have her as an 
ally.’’ 

The girls accordingly set out together to make 
their call. 

Would it not be a blow,” Milly remarked, 
‘‘if we found out that Miss Van Pieterzoon 
does not speak English. ” 

“ Nearly every educated person in Holland 
does,” Winnie replied; “besides, if she does 
not. Miss Leven can translate.” 

They asked for Mejuffrouw Van Pieterzoon, 
and were shown by the maid into the neatest 
and gayest of tiny parlors. In a moment their 
eccentric neighbor appeared. She walked as if 
she had springs in her heels, and she had a 
bird-like manner of glancing at you, in a sharp, 
penetrating way, with her head on one side. 
She smiled when she recognized Milly, scowled 
at Winnie, and then lifted her eyebrows inter- 
rogatively. 

“We wished to see Mejuffrouw Silva Van 
Pieterzoon,” Winnie remarked. 

“So I understood,” said the old lady. 
“You have seen me a great many times before, 
however, so I imagine you want to do some- 
thing more than see this time. Ah, what have 


158 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND, 


you done with your little model 1 Why do 
you dress her up in a style so unbecoming to 
her ? My dear, if you knew how much more 
picturesque you are in your own national 
costume, you would never ape foreign fash- 
ions.” 

Milly laughed good-humoredly. “We have 
both of us been mistaken, dear Miss Yan Pieter- 
zoon. We thought you were Miss Leven, and 
you thought me a Dutch girl. I think it quite 
a compliment, for they are all so pretty, and 
I do agree with you that the costume is more 
picturesque ; but, unfortunately, I have no 
right to wear it, as I am an American.” 

‘impossible!” exclaimed Mejuffrouw. “Not 
one of those wandering, homeless, mannerless 
creatures, with no ancestors and too many chil- 
dren, without beginning and without end ; 
more’s the pity, say 1.” 

Winnie flushed and was about to speak, but 
Milly trod on her foot firmly. “ Dear Miss 
Yan Pieterzoon,” she said, “some of us in 
New York are so fortunate as to have ances- 
tors, and good Dutch ones, too.” 

“ And your nephew, Mr. Piet Yan Pieter- 
zoon, of Amsterdam, was very anxious that one 


A SKETCHING TOUR. 


159 


of these Dutch American families should not 
be without end,” Winnie added. 

‘‘What do you know of my nephew?” the 
old lady asked sharply. “No, let the little 
one talk ; I like her better. ’ ’ 

“We crossed the ocean with him, Mejuf- 
frouw ; and has not your grandnephew. Lieu- 
tenant Dirk Van Pieterzoon, written you about 
us 

“ Oh, ho ! so you are the American claimants. 
Well, I thought you looked Dutch, and the 
other one must have more of the Spanish strain. 
She is Catholic, I presume ; she looks as if 
she might believe in the Inquisition. I hate 
all foreigners, especially Spaniards ; but I al- 
ways try to remember that it isn’t their fault. 
I am half Spanish myself, and I always ac- 
knowledge it. Well, have you brought the 
papers ? I presume they are all right, but I 
must look them over before I can recognize you 
as my relations.” 

“But, Mejuffrouw, we are not descended 
from your family ; we are simply the friends 
of a lady, Mrs. Van Silver, of New York, who 
with her son may prove to be distant relatives 
of yours. We have brought the papers, and 


160 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


with your permission will leave them ; and if 
you care to see us after you have read them 
and send word to the inn, we will call again.” 

There, there, what is your hurry ? Joanna 
will give you a cup of tea while I am looking 
them over. They are not so long as the doings 
of the East India Company. Go out and look 
at yourselves in the quicksilver ball in the gar- 
den, and don’t get angry when you see how 
absurd you look. The tea will be ready when 
you come back, and I shall have read enough 
to know whether I want to see you again. If I 
think you are impostors, you will find your 
papers on that table, but no tea. If they seem 
reasonable, we’ll talk it over.” 

The girls strayed into the garden. 

What a funny old thing she is!” said 
Milly. 

Delicious,” WTnnie replied. I wonder 
what makes her hate me so ; but I shall win 
her over — she stimulates me to effort. J ust look 
at this ball ! Fancy if one really looked like 
that !” 

“Well, are you never coming?” shrieked a 
voice from the door. “Are you so fascinated 
with your good looks that you can’t tear your- 


A SKETCHING TOUR. 


161 


selves away ? That ball is a great resource. I 
always send children out to amuse themselves 
by staring at it. Children and bores, who talk 
me tired, and people who can’ t converse at all. 
It’s a great resource. I’ve looked over the 
papers, and the tea is ready. They are not 
counterfeit. Now, the next thing is, prove 
that they are not stolen.” 

The girls looked at her in blank surprise. 

‘‘Can’t you understand?” she repeated. 
“ These papers are genuine— they were written 
by our own people ; they bear internal proofs 
that will be accepted by the family ; but how 
do I know’ ’ —here she shook the tea-bell sternly 
at Winnie— “ how do I know that you have 
any right to the name of Silva Yan Pieterzoon, 
or of Van Silver, which seems to be the nearest 
that these Americans could come to the spell- 
ing. Very likely you would give a good deal 
to be a Van Silver ; but are you one, tell me 
that ? Have you or have you not assumed 
the name V ’ 

“ I have told you all along,” Winnie replied, 
‘ ‘ that I do not belong to the family. I am not 
a Van Silver, and have no intentions—” here a 
realization that she did intend to assume that 


162 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


name at some future period made her break 
down and blush painfully. 

Milly interfered in her behalf. “The Yan 
Silvers are in Xew York, Mejuffrouw ; but 
when the son comes here, as he will if you desire 
it, he will bring ample proof of his right to the 
name he bears and to the possession of these 
papers. He will also bring the face of an old 
Dutch clock bearing the coat- of -arms of your 
family— an uprooted tree and a frisky calf. 
Lieutenant Yan Pieterzoon said you would tell 
us how these came to be emblems of your 
house.” 

“ Certainly ; but you have not told me how 
you like your tea— just like my Nephew Piet ; 
and I am sure that our Spanish ancestor must 
have taken his tea without sugar, too, because 
all the rest of our family like it very sweet. 
You are quite right in your guess that the tree 
torn up by the roots signified a transplanted 
stock. Silva comes from the Latin word, a 
grove, a tree ; but the calf — no one could guess 
how he jumped over our coat-of-arms, and I 
don’t wonder that you ask.” 


CHAPTER VIIL 


THE STORY OF THE CALF. 


EJUFFROUW SILYA VAN 
PIETERZOON drank her tea 
reflectively and deliberately, 
and then continued : “It hap- 
pened at the siege 
of Leyden. My 
foreign ancestor 
was left to die 
by the Spaniards, 
and saved by my 
Dutch ancestors 
along with the 
calf. At the time they had no idea of sav- 
ing my foreign ancestor’s life, but only the 
calf’s life, for my Dutch ancestor had gone in 
search of the calf, and had no idea that my for- 
eign ancestor was there ; nor, indeed, when he 
found him did he have any idea that he was my 
ancestor, and he was not at that time, of course. 



164 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


My Dutch great-grandfather always regarded 
him as a prodigal son — not as his own son, but 
as the prodigal son of some one else ; and as 
the prodigal had lost his leg and could not im- 
mediately go home to his father, my Dutch an 
cestor determined to be a temporary and sub- 
stitutionary father to him. And this accounts 
for his enigmatical remark when he returned 
to Leyden after his morning’s search for the 
calf. ‘ Have you found the calf ? ’ asked my 
Dutch ancestress. ‘Yes,’ replied my Dutch 
ancestor ; ‘ but is there any reason why we 
should kill the prodigal because the calf has 
come home ? ’ 

“ This was a very noble decision on the part 
of my Dutch ancestor, as I am sure you will 
allow when I tell you all the circumstances. 

“ It was in our terrible war against Spain for 
independence, when our noble Dutch ancestors 
under William the Silent, Prince of Orange, 
drove the Duke of Alva and his Spanish in- 
vaders out of Holland, and taught King Philip 
that he could not fasten the Inquisition on a 
free Protestant people. Ah ! but they had a 
tough job of it, for those Spaniards did not 
make play of their fighting, and they outnum- 


THE STORY OF THE CALF. 


165 


bered our army many times over. It was war 
to the death, with no mercy for the vanquished. 
You have heard of the sack of Antwerp in 
November, 1576 ? 

‘‘Fighting was the Spaniard’s business; he 
knew it well, and we knew that he knew it. 
Just to say that the Spaniards were coming in 
those days was to paralyze with terror. At the 
taking of Antwerp, which has always been 
known as the Spanish Fury, eight thousand 
persons were massacred. One says the figures 
very quietly, but eight thousand is a vast mul- 
titude. They were not killed in the onslaught, 
while opposing the entrance of the Spaniards. 
Oh, no ! The number slain before the city 
was taken was trifling. And how many of 
the Spaniards had they killed, think you ? 
Only two hundred. That was because those 
stupid men of Antwerp had not profited, as we 
in the north, by the lessons which the Span- 
iards gave us. We turned the tables, and 
changed the relationship of those numbers. 
Do you remember the siege of Haarlem f ’ 

Winnie knitted her brows. “ I thought that 
ended in a very similar way to that of Ant- 
werp,” she replied. 


166 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


The old lady smiled grimly. Then yon 
have read your history illy. How long did 
thirty thousand of the best Spanish troops have 
to besiege Haarlem ? Seven good months, dur- 
ing which time twelve thousand were killed, or 
died of disease. And what was our loss ? Two 
thousand three hundred killed in fair fight, 
and as many more murdered after they had 
surrendered on promise of clemency. Oh, it 
was not because the Spaniards were so kind 
that so few were killed after the city was in 
their power, but because Haarlem was the weak- 
est city in Holland ! They slew the entire gar- 
rison, with the exception of six hundred Ger- 
mans, who were parolled. You see we had 
learned how to fight, and they paid for their 
victory with three men to our one. We had a 
corps of three hundred fighting women. The 
captain was Kenau Hasselaer, a lady of about 
forty-seven years of age, and her soldiers were 
like her, in that they were all of mature age, re- 
spectable, and as brave and as efficient as the men. 
They had learned to play at quoits very skilful- 
ly, and this accomplishment was most useful.” 

‘‘ How so,” asked Winnie ; did they throw 
iron quoits at the besiegers 


THE STORY OF THE CALF. 


167 


‘‘ No ; they tarred barrel and cask hoops, set 
them on fire, and before they had time to burn 
their own fingers, threw them gracefully over 
the necks of the foremost of the Spanish be- 
siegers. How it made the women laugh to see 
the old soldiers pause in their mad assault and 
try to rid themselves of their fiery necklaces ! 
Many a beard was more than singed, I promise 
you. 

Even the children were made useful in 
fetching and carrying food and ammunition. 
For a long time the investment of the city was 
not complete, and across the frozen Haarlem 
lake the peasants skated at night, dragging 
after them sledges filled with provisions, which 
they secretly introduced into the city. At first 
we had a great advantage over the Spaniards 
in any encounter on the frozen canals or lakes, 
for every man, woman, and child in Holland 
can skate, while the Spanish cavalry could not 
be used on the ice, and even the infantry made 
a ludicrous appearance, slipping and stumbling 
with stockings drawn over their top-boots, to 
give them a surer foothold, while our soldiers 
could charge on skates or skim about like gnats 
in the sunshine, and in retreat at once distance 


168 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


their clumsy pursuers. But the Duke of Alva 
soon provided his army with skates, and caused 
them to practise until they, too, could ma- 
noeuvre upon the ice, though they were always 
more awkward than our own people. The 
manufacturer who made the skates for the 
Spanish army made a fortune, but was justly 
slain by his infuriated countrymen. 

“ But it is not of the siege of Haarlem that 
I wanted to tell you, but of the experiences of 
my ancestors, both Dutch and Spanish, at Ley- 
den, and how it came about that to the memo- 
rable siege of 1574 (and to the calf) I owe the 
fact that I have a strain of Spanish blood in 
my veins. My Dutch ancestor, Pieter Yan 
Pieterzoon, was a worthy burgher, a man of 
substance, whose loyalty and honor were alike 
unquestioned. He was a cloth merchant, and 
had a substantial town house in Leyden, near 
the Burg ; but he had also a little country house 
and dairy farm two miles outside the city, near 
the Castle of Lanimen, which the Spaniards had 
fortified, quite early in the siege, as one of their 
sixty-two girdling redoubts. They had sur- 
rounded the city so suddenly and unexpectedly, 
that my Dutch ancestor’s cowherd, who escaped 


THE STORY OF THE CALF. 


169 


with his life alone, had not had time to drive 
the cattle into the city, and they were all seized 
by the Spaniards, and all eaten by them with 
the exception of the calf, which happened to 
be left to the last, and was forgotten by them 
when it was their turn to flee in haste. 

It was the 26th of May when Yaldez ap- 
peared before the city with his eight thousand 
soldiers and invested it, shutting Leyden oft’ 
from all relief. In the city there were only a 
small corps of freebooters and five companies 
of the burgher guard, commanded by John 
Yan der Does, Seigneur of Nordwyck. They 
had the example of their near neighbor, Haar- 
lem, and the sad fate which befell it for resist- 
ing ; but Burgomeister Yan der Werf was stout 
of heart, and when William of Orange sent a 
message into the city by a carrier pigeon, en- 
treating them to hold out for three months, 
and promising them relief at the end of that 
time, the burghers of Leyden voted unani- 
mously to sustain the siege. All the provisions 
were purchased by the authorities and issued 
in strict allowance— half a pound of meat and 
half a pound of bread to each man daily. 
There was enough for three months— but would 


170 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


they be delivered at the end of that time ? 
Leyden had already sustained a siege, which 
the Spanish army had given up, as they had 
been called away from the city ; but they had 
come now to stay. Each day the Spaniards 
received reinforcements, each day the forts 
around the city grew stronger. The army of 
the Prince of Orange could never force its way 
through, and there was no hope of foreign aid ; 
and even if a fleet wished to land, the Spaniards 
held the entire stretch of the nearest coast, 
from the Hague to Vlaarndingen. Leyden 
itself was an inland city, lying in the midst of 
fertile meadows and broad lakes, locked in the 
arms of the sleepy Rhine, which divided here 
into many small streams connected by canals, 
and zigzagged irresolutely about, losing itself 
in irrigation and half inclined to seek no outlet 
whatever. This gave beautiful surburban gar- 
dens and orchards, and the canals in the streets 
of the city itself were overhung with the soft 
foliage of willows or guarded by sentinel pop- 
lars. It was all lovely and peaceful, but it 
might have been a trifle monotonous had it not 
been for the Burg, a ruined tower of great age, 
which stood on a hill in the centre of the city 


THE STORY OF THE CALF. 


171 


— a hill overgrown with ancient oaks. This 
tower gave a magnificent lookout, from which 
the level horizon could be scanned for miles in 
every direction. Here an incessant watch was 
kept during the anxious days that followed for 
that promised help which was so slow in 
coming. 

The Prince of Orange and his little army 
were at Delft and at Rotterdam, with all the 
Spanish forces between him and Leyden. The 
only reinforcements which the prince could ex- 
pect was from the fleet. Admiral Boisot had 
been performing exploits with the navy, but 
the Hague, and, indeed, the entire coast line 
was too strongly garrisoned for him to land 
near Leyden. But the prince had not reckoned 
wildly. He had counted on the coming of a 
reliable and irresistible force — a force deadly 
alike in its indiscriminate slaughter of friend 
and foe, but more to be dreaded in their present 
situation by the besiegers than by Leyden. 
Engineering had reached a scientific accuracy 
at this time in Holland, and the government 
engineers knew exactly just what sections of 
country were below the sea-level. They knew 
that such a sunken tract stretched from the 


m 


WITCH WINHIH IH HOLLAND. 


banks of the Yesel, whose dykes were held by 
the prince’s forces, straight to the city of Ley- 
den itself, which stands on slightly higher 
ground, protected by dykes of its own against 
any great inundation. They had maps of all 
of these different levels, and knew what por- 
tions of Holland would be inundated if the 
waters were let in. In July the estates con- 
sented to this desperate plan. They would 
give back their country to the ocean, and drown 
the Spaniards out. Proclamations were made 
of the enterprise, and the inhabitants of the 
doomed districts allowed time to remove. The 
Spaniards, who saw them going, believed it an 
empty threat, a feint to accomplish their re- 
treat, and they remained. Subscriptions were 
made throughout the country to carry on the 
work of devastation, and on the 3d of August 
the Prince of Orange superintended the break- 
ing of the dykes ; at the same time the sluice- 
gates were all opened, and the ocean began to 
roll in. The inhabitants of Leyden were in- 
formed of these proceedings by carrier pigeons, 
some of which were shot by the Spaniards, who 
thus received the same intelligence. But it 
was now the third month of the siege, and the 






At Anchor. 

(From photograph from nature, by Alfred Stieglitz ) 







THE STORY OF THE CALF. 


173 


waters advanced very slowly. How long would 
it take them to reach Leyden ? Would they 
reach the city at all ? Were not the engineers 
mistaken in. their calculations, and would not 
the numerous rivers drain the pastures faster 
than the advancing tide could flood them or 
the vast extent of territory to be submerged 
dissipate or turn aside the creeping currents ? 
The Spaniards still laughed incredulously. My 
Dutch ancestors strained their eyes in vain for 
any glint of the setting sun on the shallowest, 
most sluggish ooze on those sandy dunes to 
seaward, where the sedges waved and the dry 
sand was blown about by the light breeze. 
Meantime, Admiral Boisot had collected a fleet 
of more than two hundred vessels, manned 
with twenty- five hundred fighting men, many 
of whom were wild Zealanders, ferocious pirates, 
wearing crescents in their caps with the inscrip- 
tion, ‘ Bather Turkish than Popish.’ They 
were called ‘ Sea Beggars,’ and were never 
known to give quarter. 

“ ‘ Wild was the life they led, 

Many the souls that sped 
’Neath their stern orders. ’ 

“ This fleet was creeping slowly along on the 


174 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


tide, but was stopped by the Land Scheiding, a 
strong dyke five miles from Leyden. This was 
the outermost of the works with which Leyden 
was protected from inundation. Between the 
Land Scheiding and Leyden were several of 
these encircling dykes, and on and between 
them was the chain of sixty -two forts held by 
the Spaniards. The dykes must all be cut 
through before the fiotilla could advance, and 
the Spaniards would oppose to the death the 
entrance of their double enemy. The Land 
Scheiding stood intact one and a half feet out 
of water on the 10th of September, and the 
waters seemed to be falling rather than rising. 
The city had endured the siege for nearly four 
months, and famine had begun to prey upon 
it. It was necessary that whatever was to be 
done should be done quickly. The naval forces 
made a landing upon the dyke under cover of 
the night, and fortified themselves upon it. 
The next morning they were attacked by the 
Spaniards, who endeavored, without success, 
to dislodge them from so advantageous a posi- 
tion. The navy held the dyke, and having 
driven the Spanish soldiers back to their re- 
doubts, hewed great gaps in the dykes, through 


THE STORY OF THE CALF. 


175 


whicli the waters poured, and presently the 
fleet was able to enter. But Admiral Boisot 
saw, to his consternation, that the way was not 
open before him, as he fancied it would be, 
straight to the city. Another dyke, the ^ Green 
Way,’ only three quarters of a mile further on, 
barred the way. He was caught in a sort of 
trap, like the locks of a canal ; but he carried 
this barricade as he had the Land Scheiding, 
and promptly burst his way through. My 
Hutch ancestor, with his long spy-glass, had 
been watching the approach of the fleet, and 
after it had passed the Green Way, it must have 
been plainly visible with a powerful glass.” 

Winnie did not interrupt the good lady to 
object that the telescope w^s not invented until 
sixteen years later. After all, it was a Zea- 
lander., Zacharias Jansens, who invented it, and 
possibly some advance models had been circu- 
lated among his friends before the invention 
was formally given to the world. Mejuffrouw 
proceeded calmly, her knitting-needles keeping 
up an accompaniment to her recital. 

About half-way between the Land Scheid- 
ing and the city lay a large lake, into which 
the admiral desired to sail ; but though the 


176 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


water of the advancing ocean had penetrated the 
Green Way, it had spread over so vast an area 
that it was not deep enough to float the ships, 
and the lake lay beyond his reach. The wind, 
too, blew from the east, driving back the salt 
water as it lazily lapped at the breaches in the 
Green Way, and causing the shallows within 
to sink rather than rise. The trap was com- 
plete, and the fleet was stuck fast in the mud, 
with the exception of a few ships which had 
found their way on their first entrance into a 
canal. This canal led to the lake, which was, 
however, guarded by a bridge, which was 
strongly fortified with artillery. The ships 
attacked the bridge again and again, but forced 
by the narrowness of the canal to advance in 
single file, they were as repeatedly driven back. 

It was just here, at this bridge, that my 
Spanish ancestor that was to be, Juan Bautista 
Silva, was stationed, and saw his first fighting 
at the siege of Leyden. He was a mere boy of 
twenty, who had come out with Count Borgia 
to be instructed in arms ; but he was valorous 
and reckless, and he worked hard at the guns and 
did the Zealand corsairs much mischief. For 
a week the two armies occupied these positions. 


THE STORY OF THE CALF. 


177 


There was just enough water and mud 
around the ships to prevent the Spaniards from 
wading through and charging upon them, as 
my Spanish ancestor was eager to do, and the 
canal was an equally disadvantageous situation 
for a battle. My Dutch ancestors and the other 
good people of Leyden were now becoming des- 
perate. Hope had been high since the fleet 
appeared in sight, but one cannot live on hope 
without bread. Earnestly they prayed for a 
change in the direction of the wind, and on the 
18th it shifted to the northwest, and for three 
days blew furiously ; the white caps tossed on 
the meadows without, and came leaping over 
the broken barriers and pouring through the 
breaches. Steadily the waters rose and lifted 
the good ships in their arms, while the gale 
filled the sails and wafted the fleet straight on 
into the desired lake and over a low dyke that 
rose beyond it. The Spaniards fled to the fort- 
resses of Zoeterwonde, Lammen, and Leyder- 
dorp, inside the fourth and last dyke, called the 
Kirkway. They were being gradually driven 
in, and were now compressed in a space of less 
than two miles in width between the advancing 
waters and the city. It seemed to my Spanish 


178 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


ancestor and to other spirits equally fiery that 
it was quite time to sound the assault upon the 
city, and that they would soon be driven to this 
as an escape from their encroaching foes. But 
the Spanish commander, Yaldez, felt that the 
auspicious moment had not yet arrived. The 
Kirkway was a strong, high dyke, and as the 
fieet approached it, the wind shifted and the 
waters fell, leaving the Dutch ships stranded 
once more. Yaldez felt that there was an army 
within the city commanded by Death and armed 
with famine and pestilence which was fighting 
for him. It was better to delay his attack until 
these allies had enfeebled the garrison to the 
last degree, until possibly they would capitu- 
late, and he could enter without a stroke. My 
Spanish ancestor was chafing at the delay one 
evening, when a Saracen slave of Count Borgia’s 
told his fortune, and cheered him by the assur- 
ance that before another moon he would be 
quartered within the city, on one of the wealthi- 
est of its burghers, eating of the best food, and 
making love to his host’s pretty daughter. 
And this prophecy came to pass in a marvel- 
lous manner, though he was the only Spaniard 
of whom it could have been made. 


THE STORY OF THE CALF. 


179 


All this time the poor citizens of Leyden 
were tried to the utmost. Admiral Boisot sent a 
letter into the city by a carrier-pigeon describ- 
ing the situation and bidding them be of good 
cheer, their succor depending only on the wind. 
His men were hard at work demolishing the 
Kirk way, but the fleet could not enter through 
its breaches until the tides led the way. The 
winds were masters of the tides, and God was 
Master of the wind ; they must patiently wait 
on God. 

Wait ! had they not waited, had they not 
besought God until it seemed that He must be 
deaf or turned against them \ How could they 
wait longer, when they were now actually starv- 
ing ? My Hutch ancestor had drawn his last 
ration of horse flesh and malt cake. The pet 
dog and cat had been killed and eaten. The 
boys hunted in the sewers, and occasionally 
brought in a thin rat. Mevrouw Yan Pieter- 
zoon made a watery soup from the leaves of 
some of the trees. Every day the watchmen in 
their rounds reported people dying in the streets 
from starvation and the plague, which was 
now raging to such an extent some eight thou- 
sand died of it. When the burgomaster passed 


180 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


through the streets one day some dying wretches 
reproached him for holding out, and followed 
him with their curses until he reached the 
church of St. Pancras. My Dutch ancestor has 
written in his diary how heroic he looked as, 
standing on the church-steps, Adrian Van der 
Werf faced the mob which had gathered in the 
little square, and made that speech which has 
made him glorious : ‘ I tell you, my friends, I 
have made an oath to hold the city, and may God 
give me strength to keep my oath. I can but 
die once. Here is my sword ; plunge it into my 
breast, and divide my flesh among you. Take 
my body to appease your hunger, but expect no 
surrender while I remain alive. ’ Then the crowd 
vowed to stand by the burgomaster, and mount- 
ing to the walls, they yelled defiance to the 
Spaniards, and Pieter Van Pieterzoon came 
home to cheer his hungry family with the news. 

^‘‘Nevertheless,’ said Mevrouw Pieterzoon, 

‘ I would feel happier did I not know that the 
Spaniards at Lammen were feasting on our 
cows.’ ‘ They will not feast long,’ said my 
Dutch ancestor. ‘ It is time for the equinoctial 
gale, and we shall soon sing, “ Praise the Lord, 
all the deeps, stormy wind fulfilling His word. ” 


THE STORY OF THE CALF. 


181 


But it was hard to keep up faith and cour- 
age when there was nothing to do but to wait 
and starve. On the 28th of September Ad- 
miral Boisot sent a letter to the commander of 
the Leyden forces, Jan Van der Does, assuring 
him that in a very few days relief would enter 
the city. The letter was not only cheerful, it 
was merry. The admiral invited himself to 
dine at the commander’s house, but bade him 
not worry his cook to provide good cheer, as 
he would bring his own dinner with him, and 
likewise dinners for many a day to come for all 
the good people of Leyden, as ships laden with 
bread and meat, collected by the estates, were 
waiting just behind the men- of- war, and ready 
to enter with them. The letter was read in the 
market-place, and the bells of the city rung for 
joy. But at the same time the admiral wrote 
the Prince of Orange a letter of a very different 
tenor, saying that the waters were sinking rather 
than rising, and that if the spring tide did not 
immediately come, together with a strong wind 
from the sea, the expedition must be abandoned, 
and Leyden left to its fate. The equinoctial 
gale came on the night of the 1st and 2d of 
October, ^ storming from the northwest, then 


182 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


blowing more violently from the southwest. 
The waters of the North Sea,’ says Motley, 

‘ were piled in vast masses upon the southern 
coast of Holland, and then dashed furiously 
landward, the ocean rising over the earth, and 
sweeping with unrestrained power across the 
ruined dykes.’ 

‘‘ The sea swept through the Kirkway, bring- 
ing the fleet with it in the dead of night, their 
approach covered by the darkness and the noise 
of the storm. But the Spaniards had collected 
such small vessels as could be found, and had 
stationed them as sentinels in the canals be- 
tween the Kirkway and the redoubts. These 
challenged the advancing fleet, and there was a 
flerce naval battle in the darkness, lighted by 
the flash of cannon, among the branches and 
chimneys of the half-submerged orchards and 
farm-houses. The Spanish boats were quickly 
sunk, and the fleet swept on toward the strong 
forts of Zoeterwoude and Lammen. They ex- 
pected flerce fighting here, but panic had seized 
the Spaniards, borne by the announcement of 
their coming, which was heralded by the rising 
waters. An elevated road led from Zoeterwoude 
to the Kirkway dyke, and along the dyke in 


THE 8T0RT OF THE CALF. 


183 


the direction of the Hague. It had been already 
decided upon as a means of retreat should the 
siege be given up. When the dawn showed the 
Zealand ships close at hand, the Spaniards, 
without waiting for orders, dashed out of 
Zoeterwoude, and began a mad rout for the 
Kirkway. Their road was already hidden by 
the water. Many missed it and were drowned, 
and the Sea Beggars sprang from their ships 
and met them upon the dyke, hurling them 
from it into the water, where they speared 
them with harpoons and boat-hooks. The 
Spaniards cleared their way with desperation, 
and some escaped to the Hague ; but a thousand 
were drowned or killed. My Spanish ancestor 
was among the last to leave Zoeterwoude. 
Finding that there was no longer any escape on 
the Kirkway, for the ships were cannonading 
it, he turned with his comrades and tied toward 
Lammen in a small boat, which came drifting by 
at just the right moment. It seemed at first 
that it was only a death-trap, for some wild 
Zealanders, who were rowing about, soon spied 
and caught up with them, and made short work 
of his comrades, whom they hacked in pieces 
and cast into the water. As for the young boy, 


184 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


they left him for dead, lying with five wounds 
in the bottom of the boat, and rowed away after 
other prey. The boat rocked along as gently 
as a cradle, borne by the advancing tide past 
the fortress of Lammen straight to the doors 
or rather the upper windows of my Dutch an- 
cestor s country house, and here paused, caught 
in an angle of a dormer. Juan Bautista Silva 
came to his senses with the gentle shock of the 
boat’s banging against the house, and sat up^ 
looking about him quite bewildered, because 
all was so quiet and peaceful. He had the 
presence of mind to tie a scarf tightly above 
the wound in his leg, which was bleeding freely. 
Then he was startled by seeing a shaggy head 
protrude from the window close beside him, 
and hearing a voice bawl, ‘ Ma, maa ! ’ He lay 
down quickly, fancying that this was excellent 
Dutch for some warlike challenge. Then, as 
no shot from an arquebus followed the outcry, 
he drew himself cautiously u^), and saw to his 
surprise not an armed peasant, but the calf ! 

‘^The sagacious animal had entered the de- 
serted house during the storm, and as the waters 
rose, had mounted the stairs. Having found 
nothing to eat, he was hungrily looking out 


THE STORY OF THE CALF. 


185 


upon the waste of waters. My Spanish ances- 
tor had learned to lassoo cattle in Spain, and 
he made a noose at the end of the boat’s rope 
and threw it over the neck of the calf, which, 
frightened, beat a retreat, dragging the boat 
close up to the window-sill. Then, steadying 
himself with great difficulty, my Spanish an- 
cestor was able to climb in, after which he 
fainted again from the pain and exertion. It 
was the calf that brought him to by licking his 
face ; so you see it was the calf which saved his 
life before the coming of my Dutch ancestors. 
All day he lay undiscovered and unvisited, ex- 
cept by some ducks, which swam up to the 
window and flew in. He was too weak to catch 
and kill them, but one laid an egg, which was 
his only food that day. The night was full of 
strange noises and sights. The water had pene- 
trated a mine which the Spaniards had begun 
to make under the wall of the city, and loosen- 
ing the foundations, a portion of the wall fell 
with a crash. Silva heard the reverberation, 
and fancied it an explosion. Great matters of 
some sort were transpiring. Was Count Borgia 
making an assault upon the city ? How he 
longed to be with him, instead of penned like a 


186 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


beast in a hasse cour^ the companion of ducks 
and a calf ! Suddenly from the fort of Lam- 
men, which rose black against the starry sky, 
he could see a torch lighted procession flitting 
across the waters. He could make out the 
shadowy outlines of the troops huddled in flat 
boats rowed with mufiled oars. But they were 
not moving in the direction of the city. No ; it 
was the retreat of the main body of the Span- 
ish army. He tried to throw himself into the 
boat, to shriek to attract the attention of his 
comrades. Vain attempt ! He was too weak, 
and there were no oars in the boat. He watched 
the evacuation of the fortress in sullen despair. 
The next morning Boisot led his fleet to the 
storming of Lammen, expecting a flerce resist- 
ance. As he approached the fortress not a man 
appeared above the breastworks, not a shot was 
fired at the ships. The admiral could think of 
but one explanation as the breach in the city 
wall was pointed out to him. The Spaniards 
had left the fort to make a night attack upon 
Leyden, and were now strongly intrenched in 
the city, after having massacred its inhabitants. 
At that moment a boy was seen waving his cap 
from the battlements of Lammen, and assured 


THE STOUT OF THE CALF. 


187 


tlie soldiers on their landing that he had wit- 
nessed the retreat of the Spaniards. Boisot 
reassured, the fleet swept on to the city, the 
sailors throwing bread to every one that they 
passed. 

‘‘As soon as Juan Bautista Silva spied the 
approach of the Zealand privateers, he recog- 
nized his danger. Fortunately there was cloth- 
ing hanging in the room, and stripping off his 
uniform, he put on a peasant’s blouse, and un- 
able to restrain his curiosity, dragged himself 
to the window. A man-of-war carrying great 
guns passed at close quarters, but instead of 
firing at him, one of the Zealanders tossed him 
a loaf of bread. This served him for several 
days, for the fever engendered by his wounds 
took away all hunger. Fortunately there was 
a large ewer of water on a washstand in the 
room, for the water which lapped the side of 
the house was salt and brackish. He poured 
out a little for the calf and gave the animal 
some of the crusts, for he was a tender-hearted 
man. For two days longer he lay there, and 
then my Dutch ancestor, having taken part in 
the rejoicings within the city and lifted up his 
voice in the thanksgiving hymn which the 


188 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


hungry-eyed burghers had poured out in the 
old church, and the thanksgiving feast spread 
them by their deliverers, bethought himself of 
the herd of cows left at his dairy farm near 
Lammen, and set out in a little boat manned by 
two stout servants to visit his property. They 
rowed about over the deserted stalls of the 
stables— not a single pair of horns to be seen 
in any direction — when suddenly his ears were 
saluted by a welcome, ‘ Ma, maa ! ’ 

It was the calf, which had spied him from 
the window, and whose bleating my Spanish an- 
cestor was vainly endeavoring to stifle. Pieter 
Yan Pieterzoon entered the room, and my 
Dutch and my Spanish ancestors stood for the 
first time face to face. Juan Bautista did not 
endeavor to deceive his captor, but handing 
him his pistol, surrendered in good order, sink- 
ing upon one knee. The attempt sent the blood 
spurting from the wound in his leg, and Pieter 
Yan Pieterzoon was not the man to take advan- 
tage of a n unarmed and wounded man. Call- 
ing his servants, they lifted the boy carefully 
into the boat and brought him and the calf 
back to Leyden. 

‘^The young man was ill for weeks and 


THE STORY OF TUE CALF. 


189 


months ; his leg was twice amputated, for gan- 
grene had set in. When he at last recovered 
and could be no longer secreted, the Spaniards 
had been driven from the land, and public 
sentiment could afford to be merciful. No one 
objected to his remaining in Leyden in the em- 
ploy of Pieter Yan Pieterzoon, and later on he 
married pretty Betje Yan Pieterzoon and be- 
came, in fact (as I have rather anticipated the 
course of natural events in hitherto calling 
him), my Spanish ancestor. 

And the calf ? No, it was not slain in the 
first rejoicings that celebrated the relief of the 
city, or to grace my Dutch ancestor’s hospita- 
ble table on the celebration of the founding of 
the university on the 5th of February, 1575. 
After the dykes were reconstructed and the 
drowned land drained, the calf was taken back 
to the dairy-farm at Lammen, which was newly 
stocked with the best Dutch kine, and became 
the patriarch of a herd of cattle which took 
prizes for many years at the agricultural fairs. 
It became the ancestor, too, of the bull which 
Paul Potter painted seventy-five years later. 
The picture hangs in the gallery at the Hague, 
and is one of the glories of Holland. The 


190 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


French robbed us of this great picture, and 
considered it the fourth in value of all the 
paintings in the Louvre ; but they could not 
keep it. Holland offered 60,000 florins to Napo- 
leon for its restoration.” 

“ I have often wondered,” said Winnie, 
‘‘ why that picture is considered such a marvel. 
You know He Amicis says, in his work on Hol- 
land, ‘ It lives, it breathes ; with his bull Paul 
Potter has written the true idyll of Holland.’ 
To me it is far too big and realistic. When I 
flrst entered the gallery I looked around for a 
fence to climb. Tell me, please, about the 
founding of the university. I remember that 
the Prince of Orange, as a reward for the hero- 
ism of the people of Leyden, offered them free- 
dom from taxes, and that they thanked him, 
but said they would rather have a university. 
That was patriotic, for in their impoverished 
condition after the siege the taxes must have 
been a heavy burden.” 

‘‘ The university was well endowed and sup- 
plied with professors, and the day of its dedi- 
cation was a great day for Leyden. It was 
almost the only pageant during all that weary 


THE STORY OF THE CALF. 


191 


war. There was a grand procession, with floats 
and moving tableaux of mythological figures, 
of which the Dutch are so fond. Dubens him- 
self used to design such tableaux, and nowhere 
were there such sumptuous street displays as 
in the Low Countries. A tradition remains in 
our family of this particular festival, for Betje 
Pieterzoon took part in it, and her father wrote 
out the programme in his own hand. As it 
was in honor of an institution of learning, it 
was necessary that everything should be 
severely classical. Early in the morning there 
was a solemn religious service at the church, 
and then the procession was formed. First 
marched the different companies of the military, 
then came the floats, each a gorgeous triumphal 
chariot drawn by four horses. The tableaux 
on them represented the different schools of the 
university — Divinity, Law, Medicine, and the 
School of Arts. The Divinity School was rep- 
resented by the Holy Grospel, a female figure 
all in white attended by the four evangelists ; 
the Law by Justice with sword and scales, 
mounted blindfold upon a unicorn — though I 
think almost any real beast would have been 


192 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


more appropriate than that creature, which we 
know has no real existence. It makes one 
think that possibly they intended to imply that 
Justice herself was as little likely to be met 
with. Justice was attended by the most emi- 
nent classical jurists, and then followed Medi- 
cine, holding a garland of herbs and surrounded 
by Hippocrates, Galen, Dioscorides, and Theo- 
phrastus, with footmen and pike-bearers. Mi- 
nerva came last, in armor and on horseback, 
with Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, and Yirgil as her 
outriders, while the city band and city offi- 
cials and the professors of the university, fol- 
lowed by the populace, were the rear-guard. 
This procession passed under triumphal arches, 
along the principal streets, and was met at the 
Nuns’ Bridge by a magnificent barge bedecked 
with tapestry and garlands. Under a canopy 
sat Apollo, and beside him the Nine Muses, rep- 
resented by nine of the most beautiful maidens 
of Leyden. My ancestress, Betje Van Pieter- 
zoon, was one. The women of our family have 
always maintained the same type, and I am 
said to resemble her strongly, as you can see 
for yourself by studying her face, painted in 


THE STORY OF THE CALF. 


193 


her old age by Frans Hals in a portrait-group 
of the regents of a hospital of which she was a 
patroness.” 

Winnie became much interested, after her 
visit to the galleries of Amsterdam and Haar- 
lem, in the regent portraits of the Dutch school, 
and especially in those by Frans Hals repre- 
senting the managers and lady managers of 
various old men’s and old women’s homes and 
other charitable institutions. She conceded the 
resemblance between Mejnffronw Van Pieter- 
zoon and her ancestress, but she could not 
help wondering how such a vinegar-faced old 
woman could ever have been one of the nine 
most beautiful maidens of Leyden, chosen to 
take part in a tableau as one of the muses. 
Mejuffrouw continued placidly as though there 
had been no diversion from her account of the 
celebration. 

‘‘ My ancestress and her companions sang a 
cantata. The professors of the new university 
were brought forward, and were very ceremo- 
niously and gravely kissed all around by Apollo 
and each of the muses. 

‘‘ This proceeding is said to have so greatly 


194 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


excited my Spanish ancestor, who viewed it 
from a window of the Pieterzoon mansion, that 
it caused an accession of his fever. He could 
never endure any allusion to the university, 
and especially to one red-headed and rather 
youthful professor, whose attentions to Betje 
Pieterzoon dated from this pageant, and con- 
tinued until he was convinced by her marriage 
that there was no longer any hope for him. 
How angry my S]3anish ancestor was when his 
eldest son insisted on entering the university, 
and how much angrier he would have been if 
he could have known that there would never 
be a period thereafter when the name of Silva 
Yan Pieterzoon would not appear on the cata- 
logue ! Never until the j)resent generation,” 
and Mejuffrouw shook her head sadly. Then, 
suddenly remembering the news which Winnie 
had brought, she brightened up, and declared 
that she would immediately write to her Ameri- 
can relations and urge them to come to Holland 
at once. My grandnephew, Dirk the lieu- 
tenant, has written me that we can expect no 
help from him, for even should no other Yan 
Pieterzoon be found willing to study medicine, 
he declares he will not ; so our only hope is in 






(Portrait of Lady Managers of an Institution.) 







THE STORY OF THE CALF. 


195 


the American stock. The uprooted tree is 
doubly appropriate to them, for they have been 
twice transplanted, and will perhaps consent 
that the spade should for a third time be laid 
to the root of the tree. It is a pity that Cousin 
Piet has gone to Surinam, for he is the head of 
the house, and the new relatives must be recog- 
nized by him, and this his lawyer will never 
consent to do in his absence. But there are 
other lawyers in Holland, and the affair shall 
be settled forthwith. ” 

Mejuffrouw during her long monologue had 
warmed to the girls, finding them good listeners, 
and remarked afterward that “ even the red- 
headed one [meaning Winnie, who had scarcely 
spoken] was a very good talker.” 

During the remainder of their short stay at 
Katwyk she was most hospitable in her atten- 
tions, having them all to dine in her little coun- 
try house, and frequently sitting with them 
while they were sketching. When they folded 
their umbrellas and camp-stools for the next 
stage of their pilgrimage, she was much dis- 
tressed, and insisted that they should visit her 
in September. When,” said she, I hope to 
have my American cousin with me, and that he 


19G 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


will be a regularly entered student of the Uni- 
versity of Leyden.”* 

* The author acknowledges her indebtedness to Motley’s 
“ Rise of the Dutch Republic” for the historical facts of the 
siege of Leyden, and trusts that her young readers may be 
led by this slight story to enjoy that most fascinating of his- 
tories. 


CHAPTER IX. 


HAARLEM, AMSTERDAM, AHD MARKEH. 


"'ACH day at Katwyk had been 
enjoyable and improved, and 
there was plenty of 
material for a longer 
stay ; bnt Mr. Zilcken 
was anxious that his 
class should see the 
collections at Haarlem 
and Amsterdam, and 
especially Frans Hals’s 
noted regent pieces (or 
portraits of managers 
of charitable institu- 
tions and societies) in the Town Hall of Haar- 
lem. 

Frans Hals is conceded to be the greatest col- 
orist of the Hutch School, with the exception 
of Rembrandt. He is known as the jovial 



198 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


painter of Haarlem, for here in the first half of 
the seventeenth century he lived and painted 
convivial scenes and jolly faces. Alas ! his 
own life, but for its marvellous talent and in- 
dustry, was a sad one, for he drank deeply, 
and was even brought before the burgomaster 
for ill-treating the pretty wife whose portrait 
he has painted seated by his side and holding 
his hand most lovingly and merrily. 

There are eight of this painter’s large can- 
vases in the Town Hall at Haarlem, each con- 
taining a large number of portraits, the figures 
grouped with great skill in a harmonious com- 
position. The girls admired most the one rep 
resenting a banquet of the officers of the arque- 
busiers of St. George for its depth and vigor of 
coloring ; but there were individual faces in 
each of the other groups most interesting for 
their handling and for the character depicted 
in so masterly a manner. The lady managers 
of the different hospitals and oudemannen and 
oudevrouwen (old men and old women) homes 
were so dignified, self-righteous, and homely, 
their well-fed burgher husbands at their cor- 
poration banquets so convivial and handsome, 
that it was hardly a moral lesson in favor of 


HAARLEM, AMSTERDAM, AND MARKEN. 199 


virtue, did one not consider that it is possible 
to be good without being hideous, and to be 
jolly without being a drunkard. The square 
on which the Town Hall fronted was surrounded 
by other interesting and historic buildings. 
One of these was the Groote Markt, considered 
the quaintest building and best specimen of the 
Dutch E-enaissance in the entire country. It 
is built of stone and brick, with stepped gables 
and grotesque carvings. Beside it stood the 
Groote Kerk, a beautiful stone structure with 
ornate vaulting. The girls were pleased fco find 
within a monument to the Engineer Conrad, 
who constructed the locks of Katwyk. Small 
models of ships suspended from the arches 
commemorated the fleet that sailed to the fif- 
teenth crusade under Count William I. of Hol- 
land. They were shown a cannon-ball imbedded 
in the wall during the siege of the city. 

After visiting these buildings they all drove 
out to the Eozenhagen, or nurseries, on the 
Schooterweeg. It was not the season for 
the blooming of tulips and hyacinths, when 
the fields about Haarlem are one brilliant 
patchwork of flamboyant color. The first tulip 
bulbs were brought to Holland from the Orient 


200 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


by tile crusaders, and their culture became a 
mania. “In 1636 and 1637,” we are told, 
“ tulips became as important an object of specu- 
lation as railway shares at the present day. 
The rarer bulbs often realized enormous prices. 
It is recorded that a Semper Augustus was sold 
for sixty-five hundred dollars, an Admiral 
Lifkens for twenty-two hundred and fifty dol- 
lars. ” 

During this craze a sailor is said to have mis- 
taken and eaten for an onion a tulip bulb worth 
twenty-five hundred dollars. There are alto- 
gether a thousand acres devoted to flower farm- 
ing in the neighborhood of Haarlem. The 
flowers of the hyacinth, although rendering the 
air heavy with their perfume, have never been 
utilized by perfumers. Though hyacinth bulbs 
no longer bring five hundred dollars a piece as 
at one time, the Haarlem florists derive a good 
income from their sale. Great Britain orders a 
hundred and seventy -five thousand dollars’ 
worth of bulbs annually, and other countries 
are nearly as good buyers. France was always 
a patron in this respect. 

Hothouses were invented in Holland, and 
were for a long time kept secret, but La Quin- 


HAARLEM, AMSTERDAM, AND MARKEN ^^01 

time, the florist at Versailles, during the reign 
of Louis XIY. imported them, as has been re- 
lated in another volume, and it was the wonder 
of the court how he could serve the king with 
green peas and strawberries out of season. 

Dr. Boerhaave, of Leyden, who, it is said, 

by his books or lectures trained most of the 
famous physicians of Old and New England 
and Colonial New York, taught the hothouse 
men to adjust the slope of the glass according 
to the latitude, so as to get the maximum power 
of the sun’ s rays. One great florist in Haarlem 
had four greenhouses in which he kept the 
climates of the Levant, Africa, India, and 
America.” 

From this interesting town they passed on to 
Amsterdam, the chief commercial city of Hol- 
land. Here, though important business enter- 
XDrises were carried on and vast fortunes made, 
there was no air of excitement or hurry. The 
ships dropped their sails in an idle fash- 
ion, as though they had drifted into a snug 
harbor where they intended to settle down 
until their mossy timbers rotted under the 
caresses of the sleepily lapping water. The 
warehouses and counting-houses had a deserted 


302 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


look, the canals that threaded the town, giving 
to Amsterdam the name of the Venice of the 
North, added to the placid, calm effect of the 
picture. They were dark mirrors reflecting the 
tall, quaint houses perfectly, so that as the girls 
walked by their side and across the many 
bridges, they seemed to be living in a world 
upside down. 

It is more weird than Alice’s experiences 
through the looking-glass,” said Winnie. 

People are walking about feet upward, bales 
are being hoisted downward into warehouse 
windows, dogcarts glide along like boats 
through the water, the dogs and horses appar- 
ently swimming along on their backs. Some 
one ought to write a fairy story about it.” 

The only time that Amsterdam awoke to 
bustle during their visit was in the evening on 
the Kalonstraat. Here are the principal jewel- 
lers’ and silversmith shops and old curiosity 
dealers. Strangers do their shopping here, and 
here Mrs. Rose veldt picked up some fine speci- 
mens of old Dutch silver. The inhabitants 
make it a pleasure promenade after nine o’clock. 
Horses and vehicles are excluded from the 
street, so that groups of peasants in holiday 


HAARLEM, AMSTERDAM, AND MARKEN 203 


costume stroll, and even dance, in the middle of 
the thoroughfare. A group of buxom fishwives 
from Marken swept down the street as the class 
were looking into the shop -windows, and taking 
hold of hands they formed a chain from side- 
walk to sidewalk, and suddenly caught a bash- 
ful young tourist who was attempting to walk 
in the other direction, and whirled him away 
with them quite against his will. Yainly he 
strove to break through. The women were 
stronger than he, and when he turned and at- 
tempted to fiee in the other direction, he found 
that the line had joined around him, and that 
he was in the centre of a laughing, gibing circle 
playing an involuntary game, something like 

Little Sally Waters.” When this jovial tor- 
nado had swept away, cyclones of students and 
sailors and various guilds followed, all enjoy- 
ing themselves in childish romping, as though 
it were the Corso in carnival time. 

Their first trip from Amsterdam was to the 
island of Marken, in the Zuider Zee, by an ex- 
cursion steamer leaving early in the morning 
and returning in the evening. The sail was a 
charming one, and the island was the most pic- 
turesque and curious place they had ever seen. 


204 


WITCU WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


It is inhabited by a colony of fishermen, whose 
quaint boats, with weather -colored nets drying 
on their masts, are moored in the bay. The 
houses, or rather huts, are low and dark, but 
with rich, colorful interiors — many of them rich 
in old carved furniture, for the Marken people 
are well-to-do. They dress gorgeously : red 
petticoats extended over a fabulous number of 
underskirts, white chemisettes, velvet bodices 
covered with silver chains and ornaments, a 
long embroidered apron, odd caps with more 
ornaments of gold filigree. 

Notwithstanding their wealth the Marken 
people are unconscionable beggars. They seem 
to regard tourists as their natural prey, and 
follow them about the island, the children beg- 
ging for pennies and the older people offering 
articles for sale. 

One old man came up to Milly and insisted 
that she should purchase a finely colored old 
meerschaum. 

“ What could I do with such a thing ?” she 
asked. I do not smoke.” 

‘‘You could geef it to heem,” the man replied 
in broken English. 

It was evidently only a formula which he had 



Portrait op Elizabeth of France, Wife of Philip IV. of 
Spain, by Rubens. 




HAARLEM, AMSTERDAM, AND MARKEN 205 

found by experience would raise a laugh and 
sometimes effect a sale, but Milly turned away 
offended. She thought of the pipe afterward 
and of how Stacey would have prized its rare 
old carving. It would have been so easy to 
have bought it for him, and it was hard to 
think that she could never give herself the 
pleasure of pleasing him. 

Winnie made one sketch on the island of a 
boy in the huge baggy breeches which are so 
characteristic. 

‘^If I was that boy’s mother,” Mrs. Rose- 
veldt said, I would use that pair of breeches 
for the sleeves of my Sunday gown and be all 
in the fashion.” 

‘‘You make me think,” Winnie replied, “ of 
the girl who thought the Marken men were so 
effeminate-looking, like a lot of girls in bicycle 
bloomers.” 

For several days after their return to Am- 
sterdam from this excursion the girls might be 
said to have lived in the Ryks Museum. It 
threw its glamour over them from the moment 
that they caught sight of Rembrandt’s “ Night 
Watch” at the end of the long Gallery of Honor. 
It rejpresents a detachment of Captain Banning 


206 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Cocq’s company of arquebusiers leaving their 
guild house for duty on the night patrol. It 
is difficult to give any idea of the charm of this 
painting. It is easy to say that it lies in the 
peculiar light about which there has been so 
much discussion. Experts have proved that it 
is a light which never was on sea or land” — 
an impossible lighting either by the sun or by 
artificial means, but the effect of that mellow 
glow is masterly and entrancing none the less. 
The action of the figures is dramatic ; the genius 
of Kembrandt has elevated this painting from 
the category of portrait groups into a master- 
piece. 

In Van der Heist’s great corporation picture 
on the right, the Banquet of the Arque- 
busiers,” in the St. Jorisdorle (or shooting gal- 
lery of St. George), one admires in detail the 
twenty-five life-size portraits, and feels that 
one has certainly met before that joyous Cap- 
tain Wets, who in black velvet with a blue sash 
is toasting Lieutenant Van Waverem in his gold 
brocaded pearl gray doublet. We are certain 
that each face is a good likeness, we note how 
characteristic are the hands, evidently as care- 
fully studied as the faces, and agree with the 


HAARLEM, AMSTERDAM, AND MARKEN. 207 

guide-book in its assertion, that if they were 
cut off and thrown into a heap we could easily 
restore each to its owner. A portrait painter 
of marvellous talent was Van der Heist, but in 
Rembrandt’s picture we are not certain that 
the faces suited on the score of likeness, and 
we do not care, any more than that Shake- 
speare has not kept accurately to every histori- 
cal detail in his grand plays. The painting is 
more than the clever production of a talented 
man who has mastered his profession — it is a 
work of immortal genius. 

We cannot take the time to follow the girls 
in their charmed wanderings through this gal- 
lery, or even describe the paintings which most 
moved them to enthusiasm. Milly found time 
to copy but one, that lovely pastel of Tisch- 
bein’s, the portrait of the pretty Queen Wilhel- 
mina, wife of William I. The portraits, with- 
out doubt, form the glory of the museum, but 
it possesses also a rich collection of small panel 
paintings by the Dutch masters, and a line col- 
lection of modern pictures. Winnie glanced 
through the Chamber of Horrors, or room of the 
anatomical paintings, and did not wonder at 
young Lieutenant Van Pieterzoon’s abhorrence 


208 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


of the profession of surgery. She could not 
understand why ghastly operations and studies 
of the cadaver should form subjects for artists 
of less genius than Rembrandt. 

The collections of tapestries, of fine old furni- 
ture, and gilt leather hangings in the galleries 
of the Oudheid Kundig Genootschap (Anti- 
quarian Society) were very fascinating, as was 
the Ecclesiastical Department with its decora- 
tions of chapels in the Romanesque and Gothic 
periods. Here were fragments of stained-glass 
windows broken by the iconoclasts, plaster 
casts of tombs and other carvings, painted wood- 
en figures of saints, choir stalls in carved wood, 
missals, altar plate, and vestments — all most in- 
teresting and valuable to the decorative painter. 

The architectural series of reproductions of 
interesting and historic rooms carried them 
back into the past, as the Plantin Museum had 
done. They sat in council chambers of old 
town halls and in magistrates’ rooms built in 
the fifteenth century, and beside a chimney- 
piece from the ancient Dutch court at the 
Hague, adorned with a whole menagerie of 
lions, dogs, and other animals standing on 
parade as shield-bearers. 


HAARLEM, AMSTERDAM, AND MARKEN. 209 

They stood in admiration, Mrs. Roseveldt 
quite green with envy, before the old silver 
plate, the verj^ drinking-horn which appeared 
in Van der Heist’s portrait among those of the 
different guilds, quite putting to shame in their 
magnificence the cups given at our yachting 
and other contests at the present day. 

The cabinet of engravings held Winnie in 
thrall for an entire day, with its etchings and 
drawings by Rembrandt, and Milly was greatly 
entertained by a set of baby houses ; so they 
seemed at first, though they were in reality 
some carefully executed models of antique 
Hutch houses and family life. 

After a week spent in Amsterdam, Mr. Zilcken 
and his class returned to the Hague ; but our 
party, finding themselves so near to Laren, de- 
cided to make a short sojourn at the art village, 
which had been their original goal, intending 
later to rejoin their teacher at the Hague. At 
her last visit to the museum a remarkable ad- 
venture happened to Milly. Since the episode 
of the pipe she had thought a great deal about 
Stacey and her strange hallucination as to hav- 
ing seen him on the ship. She told herself that 
she was glad and thankful that Stacey had not 


210 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


basely deserted liis duty and secretly followed 
her to Europe. Her influence over him in the 
past had been bad, surely she rejoiced that it 
had ceased, that Stacey had accepted his dis- 
mission as flnal, and had consoled himself with 
worthy work. She was certainly glad that he 
was succeeding so finely, and that he was 
happy ; but was she quite as delighted that 
she was no longer essential to his happiness ? 
She ought to be, since she had herself willed 
that he should have no hope. Surely she was 
above so small a feeling as pique that he had 
taken her so completely at her word. Ho, this 
was what she had wished, that Stacey cease to 
think of her ; now she must see to it that she 
thought no more of him. She was approaching 
the Ryks Museum and crossing the garden in 
front of it as this train of thought passed 
through her brain, and she deliberately willed 
that when she entered that door Stacey should 
drop out of her memory, and art, so richly rep- 
resented there, should henceforth satisfy every 
aspiration. 

Even as she made this resolution an old famil- 
iar odor of tobacco, drifted by a little puff of 
vagrant wind, struck her senses. Some one 


HAARLEM, AMSTERDAM, AND MARKEN 211 


seated on a rustic bench just behind a cluster 
of flowering shrubs was smoking. That is 
American tobacco,” she said to herself. It 
smells just as Stacey’s old brier pipe used to.” 
As if to contradict her thought, the smoker ex- 
tended his hand with the pipe in ifc beyond the 
leafy screen, and Milly gave a start of surprise 
as she recognized the pipe ; it was the old meer- 
schaum which the man at Mar ken had offered 
her for sale two days before. There was noth- 
ing so very strange about that, for some tourist 
had probably xmrchased it in the mean time — 
some American tourist, for she was perfectly 
certain that the tobacco was mild Virginian. 
Her recognition of the pipe was not the strang- 
est part of the incident. The hand, though seen 
blit for a moment, was startlingly like Stacey’ s — 
its shape and size, the intaglio ring, and the 
link sleeve-buttons. She put it all resolutely 
out of her mind. It was only a coincidence 
which she would not think about. Other men 
wore seal rings, and it was an exception when 
link sleeve-buttons were not worn. She entered 
the East Court, containing the naval and colo- 
nial collections, for here was a set of wax figures 
wearing the Dutch national peasant costumes. 


212 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


She had not been able to finish her sketch at 
Marken, and in one of the cases were some 
figures wearing the brilliant costume of the 
island. One of them made a very good model 
for the unfinished figure in her sketch, and she 
was soon absorbed in her work. She sat in an 
inconspicuous corner, sheltered from the obser- 
vation of chance visitors, if there had been any ; 
but when she took her place the court was quite 
deserted. After a time she was vaguely con- 
scious that some one was moving about among 
the models of the ships in the central part of 
the court. He seemed to think himself quite 
alone, for he was whistling an air from the 
‘ ^ Cavaleria Husticana. ’ ’ Once she caught sight 
of him. He was taking a photograph of the 
Prins Frederik den Nederlanden, a forty-four- 
gun frigate, and his head was hidden under the 
black focussing cloth. When she looked up 
again he had moved his apparatus to another 
part of the room, among the English ships of 
the line. He took photographs of the Eurydice, 
the Chatham, and the Elephant, but seemed 
most interested in the little naval cutters. They 
were quite alone together for more than an 
hour, when, the light being no longer favorable 


HAARLEM, AMSTERDAM, AND MARKEN. 213 

for photography, he packed his camera into its 
travelling- case and went away. At the door he 
turned irresolutely and looked back, and for 
the first time Milly saw his face plainly. It 
was unmistakably Stacey. The shock of the 
surprise was so great that she did not move or 
utter a sound, and he turned away after a 
moment without having seen her. 

Am I in my senses ? Was that really 
Stacey?” was Milly’ s first thought, and she 
hurried to the entrance, but when she reached 
the hall there was no one there, but Winnie 
was just coming for her. 

‘‘You look as white as though you had seen 
a ghost,” said Winnie. ‘ ‘ Has anything startled 
you ?” 

“ I don’t know whether I have seen one or 
not,” Milly replied. “ Did you meet any one 
as you came in ?” 

“ Yes, the guardian. There he is, pacing 
slowly toward the Admiral’s room.” 

Milly shook her head and looked bewildered. 
“I thought I saw Stacey,” she said, “and it 
isn’t the first time. I never told you, but every 
now and then on board the steamer I saw him,” 
and she burst into nervous tears. 


214 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Winnie looked alarmed. ‘‘ Nonsense !” slie 
replied firmly. “ Stacey is in America. You 
have been working too long, and are all tired 
out. Let me help you pick up your traps.’ ’ 

The next day, before removing to Laren, they 
made a trip to the village of Zaandam by the 
Alkmaar Packet, which gave them a pleasant 
sail of three quarters of an hour. The morning 
was delightful, and Milly had recovered from 
her nervousness and was entirely herself. 

They had thought that at Katwyk they had 
seen as many windmills as could be crammed 
into one coup W ceil^ but they were mistaken, 
for as far as the eye could reach the shore was 
lined with them. They could readily believe 
the assertion of the guide-book: ‘‘Zaandam, 
Koog-Zaandyk, Wormerveer, and Krommenie 
are villages with neat little houses and innu- 
merable windmills.” At one point they were 
told that four hundred were visible. The one 
object of interest at Zaandam is the hut of Peter 
the Great. It seems to have been purposely 
hidden in a little hollow behind a cluster of 
uninteresting houses, in order to give occupa- 
tion to the idle boys who offer their services as 
guides. 


HAABLEM, AMSTERDAM, AND MARKEN 215 


Knowing that it was within a few minutes’ 
walk from the landing, Winnie determined to 
leave it until just before their departure, and 
to improve her time by making a water-color 
study of a quiet canal which reflected at least 
a dozen of the windmills. Mrs. Roseveldt 
seated herself on a camp-stool by Winnie’s 
side, and Milly, convoyed by a small Nether- 
lander in inflated breeches, set out in search of 
the famous hut. He led her across narrow 
bridges and down lanes and through such a 
labyrinth of courtyards, that Milly began to 
fancy that he was purposely making the route 
as intricate as he could, in order to make his 
services seem the more valuable. 

On one of the small houses was the somewhat 
alarming sign, Hier mangelt men^ What 
did it mean ? Men are mangled here ? Was it 
a murderer’s den, or the entrance to a football 
fleld ? We have already spoken of the con- 
tinual mistakes which the girls made in their 
guesses at the signification of the various signs 
and posters. It arose from a curious likeness 
and unlikeness to English in the Dutch words. 
Winnie declared that the Dutch were a well- 
meaning people, but that they did not know 


216 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Ilow to spell, while the words themselves had 
a malicious propensity of resembling something 
which they did not signify. The sanguinary 
inscription which Milly had just read was, 

Washing (mangling) done here.” 

Arrived at the hut, Milly was disappointed 
to hnd that it was very appropriately named. 
“ Surely Peter the Great could not have been 
so physically,” she thought, or he could 
never have entered, much less have lived in 
this tiny cabin.” It looked old enough to be 
genuine, and was protected by a sort of second 
umbrella roof supported by brick pillars. The 
little dark room contained a few simple articles 
of furniture of the rudest description, for the 
Czar was incognito when, in 1697, he occupied 
it and worked as a simj)le ship carpenter in the 
building yard of Mynheer Kalf, ‘‘ being pos- 
sessed,” as one writer says, ‘‘with an intense 
curiosity, and determined to see for himself in 
what constituted the superiority of the Dutch 
naval architecture.” Milly sat down and in- 
scribed her name in the visitors’ book, but the 
pen dropped from her hand as she read the 
last name, written so recently that the ink was 
hardly dry. She closed the book, and as she 


HAARLEM, AMSTERDAM, AND MARKEN 217 

did SO noticed a photographer’s outfit standing 
on a chair in the corner, and on one end of the 
camera- case the same name stared at her. 
Stacey himself or his mysterious presentment 
could not be far off. She questioned the guard- 
ian of the hut, but though he partially under- 
stood her, he could not make her understand 
that the strange gentleman had left his luggage 
there and would be back after luncheon. Milly 
left the hut more perplexed than ever. I will 
get mother and Winnie,” she thought, “and 
make them see the camera, and perhaps by 
that time Stacey will have returned.” She met 
Winnie packing up her sketching materials. 

“ Your mother is tired,” she said. “ I think 
you would better take her directly to the boat. 
I will skip over to the hut of the Great Peter, 
and then join you.” 

“ And Winnie,” Milly besought, “ I want 
you to particularly notice a camera standing on 
a chair, and tell me whose name is on the card 
tacked on the end.” 

Again Winnie was troubled by the expression 
in Milly ’s face. She paid far less attention to 
the little logement than the guardian felt she 
should have done, for the camera to which 


218 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND 


Milly had referred stood where she had left it, 
but a strange tricksy thing had happened. 
The owner of the camera had returned in the 
interval, and had attempted to light a cigar in 
the room, whereupon the guardian had brought 
forward a card on which were printed the 
words, Verboden zu Rook.erC'* (smoking for- 
bidden), and had placed this card in front of 
the camera, at the same time pointing signifi- 
cantly to the door. The young man had com- 
prehended and had retired for his smoke. 

Winnie read the words uncomprehendingly. 
The card covered the owner’s name, and was 
thrust into the strap that fastened the case in 
such a way that she supposed it to be the card 
to which Milly referred. She therefore asserted 
when she rejoined her friend that she had found 
the camera in question, and that it was marked 
with some Dutch name, like Dooker. She 
thought he must be a manufacturer of railway 
carriages, for she had seen the same name in 
them. 

If that is true,” Milly had replied, ‘‘ there 
must be something the matter with my eyes, 
for it is not the name which I saw, or thought 
I saw.” 


HAARLEM, AMSTERDAM, AND MARKEN. 219 


Winnie did not ask her what that name 
was. She feared that Milly was ill, and could 
only hope that the quiet of Laren would restore 
her. 


CHAPTER X. 


THE BOGIES OF LAREN — SOME WEIRD STORIES. 

ERE, in the vicinity of 
Amsterdam, the majority 
of the days were rainy, 
but the rain never inter- 
fered with their plans or 
depressed their spirits. 
They even forgot to look 
at the sky in the morning 
and speculate on the weather, but simply kept 
their mackintoshes in shawl- straps, and car- 
ried them with the light en tout cas umbrellas 
even when the sun was shining brightly. The 
rain was often no more than an opaque white mist, 
such as the jolly, jaunting-car drivers of Killarney 
would have called only a little perspiration of 
the hills.” It was always a cheerful rain, even 
when the drops pelted merrily, and the foliage 



THE BOGIES OF LAREN. 


221 


looked so cleanly washed from dust, and the 
ducks gabbled so rejoicingly, that the girls felt 
it to be the regular and beneficent rule of nature. 
Winnie said that if the law of development ac- 
cording to the physical needs of our environ- 
ment were true, she would long since have 
grown an india-rubber epidermis, have become 
web-footed, or developed long, stilt-like legs, 
like the genus grallatores, or waders. 

On the afternoon of their migration to Laren 
it rained as usual. It was only provoking be- 
cause the rain made a crystal curtain just out- 
side the windows of the stoomtram^ partly con- 
cealing the pretty landscape through which they 
passed. Every now and then the car stopped 
at a moated village with drawbridges, like those 
of some mediseval fortress, over the canals that 
played hide-and-seek with them all the way. 
Sometimes the wind would lift the low, shifting 
clouds and give them glimpses of semi-aquatic 
cows, standing contentedly knee-deep in water, 
chewing water-lilies. Once they had a view of 
a chateau, but for a wonder saw no windmills. 

Winnie had found a poem among her papers 
written by Candace Thurber, a little eight-year- 
old, in New York, and she read it to the others 


222 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


as tlie car splashed along over the submerged 
track 

RAIN-DROPS. 

Listen to the rain-drops 
As they spatter on the walk ; 

Listen, for you know it is their kind of talk, 

Telling pretty stories to their comrades on the way. 
They are merry, merry every single rainy day. 

Days that try your patience and make others sad. 

Why should we be sorry when the rain is glad ? 

When you wish the rain-drops back into the sky. 

If you listen you can hear a gusty little sigh 
From the baby rain-drops as they downward fly ; 

For rainy days to them, you know. 

Are j ust the same as we below 
Call holidays ! 

They arrived at the village just at sunset. 
The rain had ceased, and the sunset fires glowed 
like a crimson forge behind the dark stems of 
the pine forest in which the village is built. 

There was a cosy little inn with pleasant 
rooms awaiting them, into which they settled 
as by magic, and then descended to the large 
dining-room, which serves the artists and stu- 
dents as a sort of club. The walls were adorned 
with their paintings, and over the fireplace there 
was a portrait of Mauve, once, perhaxjs still, 


THE BOGIES OF LAREJST. 


223 


the leading spirit of the little community. 
Miss Hugenholz, a talented artist, to whom they 
had brought letters of introduction, welcomed 
them warmly, and presented them to the others, 
making them feel at home at once. Later she 
took them to a charming little studio which she 
had had built for herself on the edge of the 
village. Before they left they met Albert 
Neuhuys, the most famous artist of the Laren 
colony. His genre paintings of peasant life are 
well known in America, and are always charm- 
ing. Like Blommers, he looks on the sunny 
side of life, and there is nearly always an effect 
of sunshine touching some blond baby head 
with its aureole, and the sentiment of mother 
love always animates his pictures. Kever, a 
thoughtful, talented man, also lives and works 
here, having built himself a home and studio 
at Laren. These two artists strike the keynote 
of the entire school, which is one of harmoni- 
ous color, or rather tone, and peaceful sentiment. 
It was, indeed, a calm retreat, seemingly thou- 
sands of miles from the jostling, sordid, noisy, 
wrangling world. Milly said she felt the rest 
and quiet roll over her brain and heart in great 
waves of content. 


224 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


They had hardly established themselves be- 
fore they encountered John Nash. He was 
painting a cow in the fields outside the wood, 
and he greeted them with unaffected but timid 
delight. When he saw that they received him 
cordially, he told them how he had longed to 
speak to them on board the ship, but darsent 
to.” He asked immediately for Stacey, and 
was disappointed to learn that they did not 
hear from him. 

He’d ought to come to Laren,” John said. 

Any fool would learn to be an artist here. 
It’ s in the air ; you sort of breathe it in ; you 
can’t help it.” 

Milly changed the subject, and spoke of the 
odd harness of the cow which he was painting, 
a large piece of rubber cloth being strapped 
over her back. . 

Yes, they blanket the cows here in damp 
weather, which is more than they do for them- 
selves, and sometimes the stables are drier than 
the houses. It’s the paradise of cattle, and 
they raise some fine specimens — some of them 
are pretty frisky, too. I’ve been led on a 
tramp of about nineteen miles in one day (fact, 
I had my pedometer) chasing after a calf I was 



A SCHEVENINGEX FiSIIWIFE, 
(From painting by Josef Israels.) 



THE BOGIES OF LABEN. 


225 


trying to paint. I had my little panel on 
which I was painting in the lid of my sketch- 
box, and carried my box on my arm like this, 
so I kept on the right side of the calf and man- 
aged to keep pretty nearly the same view.” 

Mauve wrote something of the exuberance 
of the bovine nature,” Winnie replied. Here 
I have copied it in my note-book : ^ JVas tu 
pas envie de venir te rouler dans Vherhe haute f 
Comme je vousdrais parfois etre une vache^ 
pour res sent ir tout d fait le plaisir simple que 
cette Mte doit avoir quand elle court et galope 
dans la prairie^ la queue en V air^ faisant des 
bonds de joie et beu giant de tout coeur.'^ Do 
you not long to roll in the high grass 'i How I 
would like to be a cow for a time to experience 
tlie simple pleasure which that creature must 
have when she runs and gallops in the field, her 
tail in air, making bounds of joy and bellowing 
with all her might ! ’)” 

‘^Hum!” John Nash replied, ‘‘that might 
be a pretty spectacle just to look at, but I don’t 
believe Mauve ever tried to paint such a critter 
when she was on a war dance.” 

The kind-hearted fellow was overjoyed when 
he learned that Winnie also wished to paint 


226 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


COWS, and at once constituted himself her guard- 
ian and protector, and was of great service to 
her in many ways. 

The fortnight which they had intended to 
give to Laren lengthened into a month, and 
still they stayed. One day a visitor was an- 
nounced. It was Yan, who had come from 
America to investigate his claim under the Van 
Pieterzoon will. He had come straight through 
Leyden, not even stopping over a train to call 
on Miss Silva Van Pieterzoon, such was his im- 
patience to see Winnie. After that first bliss- 
ful meeting he was heard to declare that he 
would consider himself wholly repaid for the 
journey, even if the great expectations ended 
in smoke. 

But they will not so end,” .Winnie assured 
him. ‘‘You have a clear case. I only wish 
Mr. Piet Van Pieterzoon were in Amsterdam ; 
but since he is not, I will run in with you and 
introduce you his family.” 

Winnie’s mission was not successful. In Piet 
Yan Pieterzoon’ s absence his family trusted in 
the judgment of his notary, Yoorhelm Hoog- 
straten, who, as we know, had his own reasons 
for opposing the recognition of the American 


THE BOGIES OF LAREN. 


227 


cousin. Accordingly, at a family council called 
to discuss tlie matter, Mynheer Hoogstraten 
presented a protest in the name of the absent 
Piet, denouncing Dr. Yan Silver as an impostor. 
The Amsterdam relatives were inclined to take 
Mynheer Hoogstraten’ s view of the case, espe- 
cially as the notary asserted that Lieutenant 
Dirk Yan Pieterzoon had consented to adopt 
the profession of medicine. 

Winnie and Yan retired from the interview 
baffled, but Winnie was in nowise disheartened. 

“ Go right to Leyden,” she said, and enter 
yourself as a student at the university. You 
will then have fulfilled the conditions of the 
will, which they can never persuade the lieu- 
tenant to do. They will be glad enough to rec- 
ognize you as a relative when fact dawns upon 
their consciousness. It will all be right when 
Mr. Piet Yan Pieterzoon returns from Natal. 
There is not another Yan Pieterzoon that has 
an atom of sense.” 

‘‘You forget,” said Yan, “ that you believe 
me to be a genuine Yan Pieterzoon, or do you 
include me in the sweeping generalization ?” 

Winnie laughed, but would not take back 
what she had said. 


228 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


If they prove that you do not belong to the 
family, it will be because you are not stupid. 
Please don’t be too brilliant.” 

Yan accordingly returned to Leyden, and 
after this little ripple of excitement had died 
away Laren returned to its peaceful somno- 
lency. Every day, whether to protect them 
from the sun or the rain, the white umbrellas 
sprouted like a crop of mushrooms in the fields, 
and in the evenings the artists gathered in the 
dining-room of the inn, and organized im- 
promj)tu concerts and tableaux, or danced or 
chatted. The favorite game was Halma, the 
word derived from the Greek word to jump, 
and given to the game by the Greek professor 
who invented it. The best players sat over it 
evening after evening, an interested group 
always gathering to watch its progress. The 
score was kept on a slate, which hung among 
the paintings in a prominent position. One of 
the artists, who was something of a caricaturist, 
would draw a grotesque little face all puckered 
up with weeping on the side of the losing con- 
testant. They were called bogies, and it was 
the aim of the players to place as many of them 
as possible on the opposite side. The only 


THE BOGIES OF LAREN. 


229 


amasenient which could rival Halma in interest 
was the telling of ghost stories, which gener- 
ally went on at the same time about the fire- 
place, so that it was a stock remark that there 
were bogies at both ends of the room. 

There were several very good raconteurs 
among them— one a young impressionist named 
Gerard Oudenrogge, who had studied in Paris 
and travelled in the Orient. He was fond 
of the grotesque in art and of decadent liter- 
ature, and if all of his stories of personal adven- 
ture were to be believed, he had led a wonder- 
ful life of hairbreadth escapes and mysterious 
experiences. He had studied occultism in 
India, and announced himself an adept and a 
possessor of clairvoyance or second sight, and 
able to produce phenomena.” He fascinated 
Milly, who had been puzzling over her own ex- 
periences. She remembered the discussion 
which had taken place at Stacey’s birthday 
dinner, and she asked Mr. Oudenrogge to tell 
her just what theosophists understood by the 
term astral body. 

The young man smiled. That is a very 
general term,” he replied. There are at least 
three distinct kinds of astral bodies. There is 


2o0 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


the Linga Sharira or Doppelganger, an exact 
counterpart to our physical bodies, of which it 
is the mould or framework. It usually lies 
coiled in the spleen, but is separable from our 
physical body, and often in illness or weakness 
oozes out, unconsciously to the subject, and 
can be seen by persons not possessed of clair- 
voyance, and sometimes by the subject himself 
(and at other times without his knowledge), 
hovering about the room, performing acts which 
the invalid is accustomed to do, or has upon 
his mind to perform, though he may not have 
the physical strength at the time to do them. 
I have myself done by the agency of my Linga 
Sharira what I could not otherwise have accom- 
plished. While a student in Paris I had en- 
tered a prize competition for a composition rep- 
resenting the martyrdom of St. Sebastian. I 
could not arrange it to my satisfaction, though 
I had worked over the composition for days. 
One night I threw myself upon my couch 
utterly exhausted, with a dull pain in my side. 
The pain was so great that I could not sleep, 
but lay with my eyes open. Suddenly some- 
thing seemed to snap within me. It was as 


THE BOGIES OF LAREN. 


231 


though a spring had suddenly uncoiled, and I 
saw brooding over me and gradually becoming 
more and more distinct a whitish phantom. 
Presently it drifted to my easel, where it be- 
came more materialized, and I recognized my- 
self. To my consternation it seized a palette- 
knife and scraped out all the work which I had 
so painstakingly done. I tried to rise and stay 
the phantom’s hand, but found myself utterly 
without strength. Presently the thing — I can- 
not call it myself, though it had my semblance, 
for it was so independent of any volition on my 
part — seized my palette and fell to work with a 
sort of frenzy, and I saw a composition blocked 
in which was infinitely superior to any that I 
had dreamed. While it was working the post- 
man knocked, and the phantom cried, ‘ Eritrez ! ’ 
The man came in, laid down the letters, and 
stood watching the picture grow under the 
hand of my Linga Sharira. He evidently 
thought it my bodily self, for he exchanged 
some conversation, expressing surprise at my 
facility. Turning, he saw me lying on the couch, 
and exclaimed : 

‘ Whom have you there ? ’ 


232 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


‘‘ ‘ It is my twin brother,’ replied the phan- 
tom, and the postman came nearer and looked 
at me. 

‘ He must be very ill,’ he said. ‘ Look how 
he stares. You should get a physician.’ 

‘‘ ‘ He will be better presently,’ said the phan- 
tom ; ‘ he is only ver}^ weary.’ 

‘‘ The man looked at me closely. 

‘‘ ‘ Why, you are Mr. Oiidenrogge ! ’ he said. 

I nodded weakly. 

‘‘ The postman turned and regaxMed my 
double. 

‘‘ ‘ Of course his name is Oiidenrogge,’ said 
the phantom, ^ since he is my brother.’ 

The postman approached the phantom. 

“ ‘ Yes,’ he said doubtfully ; ‘ without doubt 
you are M. Oiidenrogge ; but your brother is 
so like you that I would have sworn it was 
you. How you work ! Is the devil in you % ’ 

‘‘‘No,’ my double replied; ‘I am simply 
not in the devil.’ 

“ The man looked frightened, he gave an- 
other glance at me as I lay staring at him from 
the couch. 

“‘Tell me,’ he cried, ‘what is the matter 
with you % You are surely the man I know.’ 


THE BOOTES OF LAREN. 


233 


I tried to speak, but was too weak and 
could only gasp. 

^ He is dying ! ’ the postman shrieked. 

“ My phantom laid down the palette and 
brushes, and came and stood beside me, placing 
its hand on my side. It was my exact counter- 
part, but athletic, full of fire and nervous 
strength, while I lay inert. Little by little it 
grew more and more ethereal, fading away be- 
fore my eyes, and I could see through it as 
though it were a mist, at the same time I felt 
my heart beating faster and my own strength 
returning. Suddenly the phantom vanished, 
and I sprang to my feet perfectly recovered. 

The postman was as white as a sheet. 
‘ Fve not drank a drop this day,’ he said ; ^ but 
I’ve been seeing double. Thank Heaven the 
fit’s over with now ! ’ and he staggered from 
the room. I should have thought it a dream, 
as he did, but the picture was there on the 
easel, and it took the.prize.” 

That is a remarkable story,” said Winnie. 

Did you ever have any other experience like 
it?” 

“Yes, two ; one was an occasion when I was 
permitted to see the Linga Sharira of another. 


334 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


It happened some years before the incident of 
which I speak. My grandfather was very ill, 
and 1 was left for a short time in care of him 
while the nurse left the room for hot water. 
He was in a muttering delirium, and talked of 
his will and of a codicil which he ought to 
write. I went to his desk and tried to find it, 
but though I searched through every drawer 
and pigeon-hole, I could find no will. ‘ It is in 
the secret drawer,’ my grandfather said, but 
he could give me no directions, and I failed to 
discover any spring, and finally gave up the 
search and came and sat beside him. As I 
watched it seemed to me that he became death- 
struck, his jaw dropped and his eyes became 
glassy. I ran to the door and called for help, 
but returned at once to the bed. Grandfather 
was still breathing. The nurse was in the 
kitchen and had not heard me, and we were 
alone in the house. Suddenly I heard a sharp 
click and the opening of a drawer in the desk, 
and turning I saw a man writing on a docu- 
ment. The man looked so much like my grand- 
father that I looked again, to be sure that he 
had not risen, but he lay in a semi- comatose 
condition as before. I hurried to the desk and 


THE BOGIES OF LAREN. 


235 


saw that the paper on which the man was writ- 
ing was my grandfather’ s will. I seized it, but 
the man held it firmly. Whereupon I grasped 
the man’s hand and wrenched it violently, or 
attempted to do so, for my hand closed with a 
grip that imbedded my nails in my own palm 
—upon nothing, I looked at the spectre and 
was again struck by its resemblance to my 
grandfather. It continued to write, but with 
difficulty, and it signed my grandfather’s name 
in an almost illegible scrawl, then it handed me 
the pen, saying, ‘ Witness my signature ; ’ 
but while I hesitated the pen dropped upon the 
desk and the phantom vanished completely, 
while my grandfather called from the bed, ‘ I 
have hurt my hand, I have hurt my hand ! ’ 
The nurse came in a moment later and found 
that his wrist was sprained. ‘ I don’t see how 
your grandfather could have done this,’ she 
said, ‘ without your seeing it happen. He 
must have fallen out of bed.’ My grandfather 
recovered, but he never regained the perfect 
use of his hand. I had locked the will in a 
drawer and had taken the key before the nurse 
entered the room. On his recovery he had no 
recollection of what had happened, only a sol- 


236 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


emn feeling that he had been very near death, 
and that it behooved him to make certain 
changes in his will before he experienced an- 
other similar attack, when it might be too late. 
When I showed him the will he declared, with 
surprise, that the very changes he desired had 
been made. More remarkable still, the first 
part of the codicil was traced in his handwrit- 
ing as it had been before his illness, the latter 
part and the signature in the cramped and 
almost illegible script in which he always wrote 
after the mysterious spraining of his wrist, in 
which I was convinced of my own agency, 
though I never confessed it.” 

Various exclamations of astonishment or in- 
credulity followed the recital of this story, but 
Mr. Oudenrogge was entirely unmoved by them. 

do not expect you to believe me,” he 
said, since when these things happened to me 
I could scarcely believe my own eyes.” 

Milly was evidently profoundly impressed. 

What was the third incident ?” she asked. 

‘‘ It was an experience with some train- wreck- 
ers,” the artist replied. ‘‘1 was walking one 
day last summer on the railroad-track of the 
main line between Paris and Lyons, when I en- 


THE BOGIES OF LAREN. 


237 


countered a gang of rough-looking men whom 
I supposed at first were workmen set to mend 
the railroad-bridge that crossed a narrow chasm, 
as they were at work upon it with pick and 
lever. As I approached I saw that they were 
not mending the bridge, but breaking it up, 
and the truth flashed through my mind. The 
Lyons Express was due in five minutes, and 
would dash straight down to destruction through 
that broken bridge. I turned and ran as fast 
as I could, hoping to signal the train a little 
further up the road ; but the men saw me run- 
ning and divined my intention. Two of them 
set out in pursuit, overtook and felled me to 
the ground with a blow on the back of my neck, 
then dragged me a little aside from the track, 
and sat down to watch over me. I was in an 
agony of desire to save the doomed train, not 
unconscious, but utterly helpless, being bound 
and gagged. When my Linga Sharira had 
painted the ' Martyrdom of St. Sebastian,’ it 
had left me unconsciously to myself and with 
no exertion of my will power. I had never at- 
tempted to control its action, though I had this 
proof of a double separable entity, but I now 
Avilled Avith all my might that my astral body 


238 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


should fly on this errand. The men who were 
standing over me were more interested with the 
progress which their companions were making 
in the destruction of the bridge than in me, and 
suddenly, when they were both looking in that 
direction, my inner self sprang from me with a 
bound and sped toward the approaching train. 

‘‘ Impalpable, spirit-like as was this mani- 
festation of myself, I knew that if it were in- 
jured the same injury would be found on the 
senseless hulk which I had left lying under the 
guard of the two ruffians ; but all the same I 
planted myself before the nearing engine and 
waved my arms and danced like a madman, 
and the train gradually came to a standstill 
within a few feet of where I stood. I explained 
the danger to the engineer ; he saw for himself 
that my words were true, and reversed the en- 
gine, backing the train down the track to the 
station, which it had just left. ‘ Jump on 
board,’ he had said, ^ the wreckers may murder 
you for informing upon them ; ’ but I dared 
not separate myself so far from my physical 
body, and I glided behind some trees as the 
gang approached. 

‘ Who gave the alarm ? ’ they asked of one 


THE BOGIES OF LAREN. 


239 


another, as they saw that their prey had escaped 
them. ‘ Did the men let the prisoner get away ? 
There was some one on the track before the 
train began to back, some one in a light suit 
like his.’ 

‘ ‘ ^ The prisoner is safe enough, ’ said one of 
the men who had been watching my body. 

‘ Jean has been sitting on him all this time. 
Come and look at him for yourself. I think 
he is done for, and we had better be scattering, 
or we shall be arrested for murder as well as 
attempted train robbery.’ 

“ I waited until the men had hurried away, 
and then approached and unbound iny physical 
self, but I had some difficulty in rejoining it, 
for so much of my thought principle and will 
had united itself with my Linga Sharira that it 
had formed another kind of astral body, the 
Mayavi Rupa, or thought body, and was more 
really alive and more truly myself than the 
inert mass which lay there like the clothing 
I would have discarded before bathing in the 
river. Since then I have learned to project my 
Mayavi Rupa at will, and to take long journeys 
in it, whereas the Linga Sharira never wanders 
far from its physical owner.” 


240 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Are all ghosts, then, the doubles of living 
persons Winnie asked. 

“No, there are other astral bodies whose 
activity is continued after the death of the per- 
son who is responsible for their development. 
For instance, the Kama Putra is a materializa- 
tion of our evil desires into a malign, demoniac 
ghost, which, when these desires have been 
allowed to run riot in the mind (although the 
person who has indulged them fancies he has 
committed no actual crime), becomes a very 
objectionable entity or familiar, possessing low 
cunning without the least vestige of conscience, 
and escaping from the will power of its owner 
performs acts of which he is not conscious, and 
commits crimes which he would not have dared, 
and continues in this terrible career long after 
the man himself is dead. If this were known 
it might add a restraining influence and become 
a moral factor, for surely the most selflsh of us 
would tremble to let loose upon the world a 
new demon. You have read Thomas Hood’s 
poem of Eugene Aram., and remember how he 
described a murder which he said he had done 
in a dream, and the ofiicers of the law flnding 
the body of the murdered man and circumstan- 


THE BOGIES OF LAREK 


241 


tial evidence which tallied with his description, 
Eugene Aram was executed for the murder. 
Now it is my belief that had there been some 
one to watch Eugene Aram on the night that 
the murder was committed, he would have been 
seen peacefully sleeping in his bed, and an alibi 
would have been proved and justice would have 
been defeated, since he was morally responsible 
for the deed.” 

Do you know any stories of crimes com- 
mitted by the Kama Putra Milly asked. 

The little fire on the hearth burned low. 
Some one had removed all the lamps to the 
other end of the room, where a game of Halma 
had been in progress. The windows were open, 
and the night wind moaned through the pines, 
and waved and rustled the white curtains mys- 
teriously. It was just the time for ghost stories 
to have their utmost effect. 

I know several real instances,” said the 
artist ; ‘ ‘ but they are too ghastly, too terrible 
to relate.” 

‘‘Oh, no,” pleaded Milly, “do tell me, Mr. 
Oudenrogge, I am so much interested.” 

Winnie rose with an energetic, decided move- 
ment. “ This nonsense has lasted long enough,” 


242 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


she said authoritatively. Mr. Oudenrogge is 
a very vivid story-teller, but for that very reason 
I object to your being worked up into hysterics 
by his clever fictions.” 

I assure you, Miss De Witt, that they are 
perfectly true accounts of facts.” 

Winnie smiled incredulously. Come, 
Milly,” she said, “ I insist on your coming 
away.” 

Certainly, Miss Roseveldt,” the artist re- 
plied politely. Too intense study of occult- 
ism has unsettled the reason of many an in- 
quirer. I would advise you to listen to no 
more to-night.” 

‘^Nor ever,” Winnie muttered under her 
breath, as she led Milly to her room. You 
must not let that man fill your brain with his 
hobgoblin stories,” she said to Milly as she 
kissed her good-night. I am convinced that 
there is not a word of truth in them. He only 
tells them in the first person to make a sensa- 
tion. I would not be surprised if he were sim- 
ply trying them on us as he would rehearse a 
play before a small audience, and that we shall 
read them later on in some magazine. Take 
my word for it that he is a writer of fiction.” 


THE BOGIES OF LAREN. 


243 


Milly did not reply, but seated herself by the 
window after Winnie had left, and thought 
deeply of her own experiences in the light of 
these Oriental theories. 

In her ordinary state of mind all this would 
have seemed the veriest nonsense and absurdity, 
but she was nervously unstrung and fascinated 
by the ingenious romancing. She thought of 
Stacey’s apparition on the steamer, an appari- 
tion seen only by herself, and again of his hav- 
ing called and left a message for her at the 
Hague at the time when Yan had written that 
he had seen him at Cambridge ; and now he 
had appeared to her twice again. What if 
Stacey had cared so much for her that he had 
been able to project his Mayavi Hupa, or 
thought body, so that it had followed her in 
this journey ? Did he know of these wonderful 
ideas ; was this what he meant in their farewell 
conversation ? She remembered every word of 
it so perfectly. 

There is no truth in esoteric Buddhisms, 
or you would have seen my ghost following you 
ever since you left Shinnecock. Since then I 
have lived a double life. I have known that I 
was mechanically bending over my desk trans- 


244 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


lating the classics, and all the time I was talk- 
ing to you. Have you never seen or heard me 
begging yon to forgive me ? No, I shall go on 
following yon, and yon will never see me, for 
such ghosts are only seen by the heart.” 

It was only the chance raving of a hot-headed, 
hot-hearted boy, but it took on a grave signifi- 
cance to Milly now. What she had seen, was 
not the j^hysical Stacey gone mad and following 
her in a dangerous mania, it was not the illu- 
sion of her own disordered faculties, it was 
Stacey’s Mayavi Rupa with her, because this 
was where he most longed to be, not visible to 
others, because he had so willed it, and only 
visible to her because (it was the first time that 
she had confessed it to herself, but it must be 
so, she told herself, since she could see him) 
her heart still cried out for his love, and 
longed for him as he for her. She knelt by 
the open window and let the wind fan her 
forehead. 

‘‘Oh, this is terrible, terrible,” she said to 
herself, “ this influence which we exert upon 
one another ! It was all because of his love 
for me that Stacey pretended that he painted 
pictures which were really done by John Nash. 


THE BOGIES OF LAREN. 


245 


My influence over him has been bad all along, 
and now it has drawn his utmost spirit away 
from every high endeavor, and he is eaten up 
by the thought of me and ruined for anything 
useful or good. It will go on and on until his 
Mayavi Rupa takes into itself all the evil prin- 
ciples of his nature, and becomes a Kama Putra, 
a malevolent, terrible demon, which will exist 
even after he is dead. It is worse, far worse 
than anything that I had dreamed, and I don’ t 
see any way out of it, except by dying myself ; 
then he might cease to care for me. If only I 
could have influenced him toward what was good 
instead of toward wrongdoing ! Oh, Stacey, ’ ’ 
she sobbed, ‘ ^ stop caring for me. ’ ’ It seemed to 
her that she must have an answer, and she tried 
the old superstitious device of opening her Bible 
at random. Strange to say, her index-flnger 
slipped to Ruth’s magniflcent declaration : 

Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return 
from following after thee ; for whither thou 
goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will 
lodge.” She read no more, but looked out at 
the night in a strange mixture of happiness 
and despair. The latest stoom tram had just 
arrived, and one passenger alighted from it and 


246 


Wire II WINNIE IN HOLLAND, 


came toward the little inn. The moonlight 
illumined his face and figure as he approached, 
and Milly saw that it was Stacey, or, as she had 
no question, his astral body. This conviction 
took away all the hesitation which she would 
have had in speaking to Stacey himself, and 
she slipped down the staircase and stood wait- 
ing for him on the veranda as he approached. 
It was not very late, and the Halma players 
still sat at their table just within, and the lamp- 
light shone strongly upon her face and figure. 
Stacey recognized her at once and quickened 
his step, until he stood close beside her. 

“ Oh, Milly,” he said, you don’t know how 
glad 1 am to see you and then something in 
her look struck him as strange and unnatural, 
and he let his extended hand, which she had 
made no motion to take, fall to his side. 

Milly looked at him very intently. Stacey, ’ ’ 
she said, “why do you follow me when you 
know it gives me pain f ’ 

“ I would not annoy you for anything in the 
world, Milly,” he replied. “ I will go away in 
the morning, and never trouble you again. I 
did not expect to see you now. I accepted my 
dismissal as final. I gave you up then, and have 


THE BOGIES OF LAREK 


247 


clierislied no hope since. I came to-day just to 
see how J ohn N ash is getting on. Don’ t be trou- 
bled about me. I am conquering myself, and 
you need not be afraid to meet me, Milly. If 
you will ask me now to be your friend, as you 
did the last time we met, I will not refuse. I 
am sure of myself. You did not love me, and 
I have come to see that it is all right.” 

When Stacey announced with such certainty. 

You do not love me,” it was on Milly’ s lips 
to cry out, Oh, yes, I do ; but my influence 
over you is bad. I love you too much to let it 
continue,” but he had gone on so rapidly that 
she had no chance to speak, so cheerfully that 
she was abashed even before what she believed 
to be an impalpable spirit. 

“If this is true,” she replied, “why have 
you kept appearing to me all summer ?” 

“ What do you mean ?” he asked in bewilder- 
ment. “ I have not seen you, Milly, since I 
put you in the carriage after the theatre party 
on my birthday.” 

“Yes, I know not really ; but do you mean 
that you have not willed that your Mayavi 
Rupa should constantly attend me ?” 

“ I do not understand what you mean, Milly. 


248 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Whoever this Mayavi Rupa is who has been 
bothering yon, I certainly sent him on no such 
rude errands. Was it some Oriental juggler, 
like that little Javanese servant of Professor 
W aite’ s ? If so, I will wring his precious neck. ’ ’ 
Stacey, is this your very self 
Why, of course, Milly ; whom should it 
be f’ 

I thought — ” she stammered in confusion — 
‘ ‘ let me take your hand, Stacey. Why, it is 
you — really you?^ 

“Weren’t you certain of that? It seems to 
me you have been pretty confidential, if you 
thought you were talking with any one else.” 

“No, no,” she answered quickly; “to no 
one else but just to your very soul, Stacey. I 
thought it was your spirit, your astral body.” 

Her hand was burning hot, and though it 
rested but a moment in his, he was certain now 
that she was in a high fever and delirious. 

“Never mind, Milly,” he said soothingly. 
“I don’t quite see through all this, but one 
thing is certain, I am here, and I am not a 
spook, but your old friend Stacey, very much 
alive. And I am not here to distress you in 
any way, but to help you and to make it par- 


THE BOOTES OF LAREN. 


249 


ticularly unpleasant for any one who has been 
annoying you. We will talk this all over in 
broad daylight to-morrow, after you have had 
a good night’s rest, and then I’ve no doubt we 
shall be able to unravel this mystery. Is your 
mother here, and Winnie ? I am afraid it is 
too late to call on them. Please ask them if 
they will see me to-morrow. I hope they can 
put me up here, and I will meet you at break- 
fast.” 

She bade him good-night, and went up the 
stairs wearily. On the landing she met Winnie, 
who had discovered that she was not in her 
room, and was frightened. 

Milly caught her arm eagerly. “ Stacey is 
there,” she said, ‘‘ down in the office. Won’t 
you go down and speak to him ?” 

Milly, darling,” Winnie replied, much 
troubled, I am afraid this is only another of 
your hallucinations. Yan said that he heard 
just before he left that Stacey was to graduate 
with honors. He would have known if Stacey 
intended to come to Europe. It must have 
been only your heated imagination, dear child, 
wrought up by that wretched Mr. Oudenrogge’ s 
stories ; but to satisfy you, I will go and see,” 


250 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


and she turned briskly to descend the stairs, 
when, to her surprise, the proprietor of the 
house, laden with bags and followed by Stacey, 
who carried a lighted candle, came out of the 
office-door and began to mount the staircase. 

“ Do you see him ?” Milly asked anxiously. 

I do ; he is coming straight toward us. Do 
you see him, too 

Winnie had been profoundly troubled, but 
the sight of Stacey reassured her. Surely all 
would be right now, and she exclaimed joy- 
ously as he bounded up the staircase : 

Oh, Stacey, this is delightful ! We are so 
glad to see you.” 

To her surprise, Milly turned white and 
slipped quickly into her own room. 

What is the matter with Milly ?” Stacey 
asked anxiously. 

Why, nothing,” Winnie replied, at the 
same time wondering vaguely. ‘‘We have 
been listening to ghost stories this evening, and 
you probably startled her just now.” 

“ I shall never forgive myself if I have made 
her ill.” 

“ Oh, no ; it’s not so bad as that. She will 
be all right in the morning. Good-night, and 


THE BOGIES OF LAREN. 


251 


a hearty welcome to Laren. We only needed 
your coming to make the place perfect.” 

Stacey passed on, and Winnie entered Milly’s 
room chattering gayly. There was no reply, 
for Milly did not hear her. She had by a 
supreme eifort of her will walked as far as the 
couch and had fainted quite away. 


CHAPTER XL 


CERTAIN DIFEICULTIES. 


EJUFFROUW SILYA YAN 
PIETERZOOX received her 
American cousin (as she in- 
sisted from the first on call- 
ing Yan) most cordially. 
Winnie sent the good lady 
a sketch-book filled with 
the vagaries of a Laren 
calf, which were almost 
as amusing as the legend 
of ^^The Bull Calf,” by 
our American illustrator, 
A. B. Frost. 

Winnie had entitled the 
collection “ The Return of the Yan Pieterzoon 
Calf,” and she could have given Yan no better 
letter of introduction. 

Our Spanish ancestor was brought to us by 



CERTAIN DIFFICULTIES. 


253 


a calf,” said Mejulfrouw, and it is but fitting 
that the ancestral calf should accompany your 
home-coming.” 

She did not laugh or even smile as she studied 
the eccentric antics of the exuberant animal, but 
considered the drawings as a grave tribute to the 
exploits of the legendary family pet. She was 
prepossessed in Yan’s favor, both by his appear- 
ance and by what the girls had told, and when 
he showed her the clock face with its coat-of- 
arms, which he had brought with him, as re- 
quested, she considered this as proof positive 
of his identity. ' It was not alone the heraldic 
device which gave her this assurance, for this 
might have been modern work, but her sharp 
eyes had discovered the name of the clock - 
maker, Jacobus Groot, a celebrated maker of 
timepieces of Leyden, and the date of the 
clock’s manufacture, which tallied with an in- 
ventory of the effects of Hendrix Yan Pieter- 
zoon, the father of Cornelis, who emigrated to 
America. 

Mejuffrouw regretted that she was settled at 
Katwyk for the summer, and urged Yan to 
establish himself in her father’s office m the 
Leyden homestead. She served him a tempt- 


254 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


ing luncheon with poffertjes^ or batter- cakes, 
and was surprised when told that buckwheat- 
cakes were an American dish. 

‘‘ They must be another of your heirlooms 
from us,” she insisted, ‘^for hoelc weit was 
brought from the Orient to Holland by the re- 
turning crusaders. Those heathen Saracens 
knew no better than to eat it in the form of 
mush, but waffles and other inventions of the 
griddle were evolved in the Dutch kitchen. ” 

‘‘ The Knickerbockers of the Hudson were 
too wise to forget these traditions,” said Van, 
“ and you will be pleased to know that their 
Dutch ovens were one of our most popular in- 
stitutions. Gingerbread, too, must be another 
of our legacies from Dutch cookery, though we 
do not frost and gild it as you do when sold at 
a Kermess ; and the recipe for the making of 
doughnuts, which are supposed to be a New 
England invention, was probably learned by 
the Pilgrims during their stay at Leyden, and 
we do wrong not to give them more generally 
their Dutch name — crullers. ” 

‘‘ When I return to Leyden,” Mejuffrouw 
promised, ‘ ‘ you shall not want for these deli- 
cacies, You have come over on my invite tiop^ 



Portraits of Frans Hals and his Wife, by Frans Hals. 




I 



• 1 * 




i; 





i 




CERTAIN DIFFICULTIES. 


255 


and until this matter of the legacy is settled 
you should be my guest.” 

‘‘It would please me better,” Yan replied, 
“ if you could find me some opportunity of 
supporting myself while I am a student of the 
university.” 

Mejuffrouw thought deeply. “You might 
in time succeed to my father’s practice, but 
that has been appropriated by local physicians, 
and will be hard to win back by a stranger. 
There is one position which is practically in my 
gift, and that is the head of the dispensary of 
the Orphanage founded by our family. I am 
one of the regents of that institution, and they 
never dare offend me, for they hope some day 
to come into the Pieterzoon fund on its for- 
feiture by our family, and they wish to do so 
amicably if possible. The position has always 
been held by a Dr. Yan Pieterzoon, and has 
been vacant since the death of the last one. 
You can have it if you like, but the work is 
arduous and may interfere with your studies, 
for the Orphanage dispensary has a great many 
6)2^^-patients. . The salary, too, is almost noth- 
ing, for the place has always been really filled 
by some young medical student placed there to 


256 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


represent the Dr. Yan Pieterzoon to whom it 
was nominally granted, and who accepted it 
out of charity and to have his name connected 
with the institution.” 

‘‘ In spite of the large labor and little reward, 
I think I will take it very gratefully, if you 
can procure it for me,” Yan replied. It 
will at least give me my daily bread, and 
give me a feeling of independence, and all 
practice is valuable to the young physi- 
cian.” 

Yan’s life in Leyden, therefore, opened very 
busily. Though he inscribed himself at the 
university, there would be no lectures in the 
specialty which he wished to take up until the 
autumn, and he therefore threw himself into 
the work of the charitable institution with all 
his might. In spite of the difficulty of acquir- 
ing the language, the regents were soon aware 
that never in their knowledge had the institu- 
tion been favored with so efficient a physician. 
Yan possessed that unfailing qualification for 
success— enthusiasm. He was in love with his 
work. It was joy for him to see science relieve 
pain, to set a broken limb for the poor laborer 
who had fallen from a scaffolding, to hold a 


CERTAIN DIFFICULTIES. 


257 


sick baby in his arms and find out by a magical 
sort of intuition what was wrong with the little 
sufferer, to go into low, fever-haunted dwell- 
ings, and bring not only medicines, but the 
knowledge of wholesome living to the occu- 
pants. That was the trouble which baffled him 
so often. His patients lay in damp, malarious 
rooms, in which there was no possibility of re- 
covery. The Orphanage was an airy, sunny 
structure, sanitary and cheerful. The girls 
were trained there to habits of industry, were 
educated in the rudiments, and were made skil- 
ful in all housewifely arts. It was all most ad- 
mirable, but the house was small and meagerly 
endowed, and the regents had lost heart. The 
Pieterzoon legacy had hung over them like a 
fair mirage, to be continually dissipated by the 
breezy arrival of a new doctor of the name and 
lineage. At Mejuffrouw’s advice Yan had at- 
tached the ancestral Pieterzoon in its translated 
form of Peterson to his name with a hyphen, 
thus announcing his pretensions from the out- 
set, and the regents had regarded him as already 
invested with his rights. It was the old recur- 
rent story, whenever they had begun to hope 
for the fund, a new physician had come to them 


258 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


instead. They were fortunate that this one 
had prov^ed such a treasure. 

Van found Leyden very interesting in his 
professional walks. He found the quarter in- 
habited by the Pilgrims during the eleven years 
in which they lived in Leyden. We are accus- 
tomed to think of Dutch influences in America 
as being conflned to 'New York, and forget that 
the Puritans, before fleeing to America, found a 
refuge in Leyden from religious persecution, and 
were at that time a happy and prosperous colony 
of some three hundred souls ; that here they 
found Miles Standish in charge of an English 
company, and here, under the leadership of 
Robinson and Brewster, they enjoyed religious 
liberty and the hospitality of their neighbors, 
and began to adopt Dutch customs. The chil- 
dren attended the public schools and acquired 
the Dutch language, and the young men and 
maidens intermarried. They were fast becom- 
ing Dutch, and might never have emigrated to 
America, but have quietly merged with the 
Dutch nation and have lost all identity, had 
not the truce with Spain have ended and war 
been announced for the year 1621. The young 
Englishmen enlisted in such numbers that the 


CERTAIN DIFFICULTIES. 


259 


leaders became alarmed, and the majority de- 
termined to emigrate. They chartered the little 
ship Speedwell, and, sailing from D elf shaven, 
joined their English friends at Southampton, 
who were waiting there with the Maytiower to 
sail with them. We know the rest of the story, 
but of the education and influences received in 
Holland, which had much to do with moulding 
their future life, we are not so familiar. These 
historical researches were only side recreations 
for Van, and, little by little, as he grew more 
and more absorbed in the work of the Orphan- 
age, he gave them up. 

His interest was contagious, it wakened Mejuf- 
frouw, who had never concerned herself actively 
with the institution of which she was a patron- 
ess. Yan ran out to Katwyk twice a week to 
drink Yan Pieterzoon cocoa with her and to eat 
poffertjes. Mejuffrouw had had no one to care 
for for many years, and this enthusiastic young 
man charmed her. She astonished her friends 
by leaving her cottage at Katwyk, and returned 
to the family mansion at Leyden. She aston- 
ished the authorities at the Orphanage by send- 
ing the more delicate girls out to the Katwyk 
cottage, to enjoy sea-bathing for the month of 


260 WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 

August. Slie astonished the regents by attend- 
ing their midsummer meeting, and by allowing 
herself to be put on two working committees. 

They need a nursery department,” Yan had 
said. The Orphanage had only admitted chil- 
dren after the age of two because of the expense 
which the care of babies necessitates, and so 
every year in Leyden the mortality among in- 
fants in those damp, fever-stricken old houses 
was fearful. Mejuffrouw took out her bank- 
book and considered. 

‘‘ If I were to give up my own town house as 
the nursery department, how much would it 
cost to run it ?” 

You would need,” said Van, ^^a different 
corps of nurses for night and day, half a dozen 
laundresses, a cook, and a competent chief 
nurse or matron, who could only be obtained 
at a high salary.’ ’ 

“ I would be that matron, and I would not 
require any salary. ’ ’ 

Then there is the item of provisions, chiefly 
milk.” 

‘‘That could come from our dairy farm at 
Lannem. The descendants of the Pieterzoon 
calf shall make that contribution, and as I make 


CERTAm BIFFIGULTIES. 


261 


out, my part of the legacy which is in question 
will cover the other expenses. We will open 
the nursery at once. How fortunate, cousin, 
that you came to secure that money to me, 
otherwise I could not have done it !” 

Van refrained from explaining to her that if 
she had lost the legacy the Orphanage would 
have obtained it, and not only her part, but the 
lieutenant’s and the part accruing to Piet Yan 
Pieterzoon’s family in Amsterdam. He was 
beginning to have qualms of conscience him- 
self. What right had he to come from America 
to divert a large fund from a noble institution 
to private uses \ 

Meanwhile Mynheer Yoorhelm Hoogstraten, 
Mr. Piet Van Pieterzoon’s lawyer, was doing 
his best that Yan should not so divert it. 

He came on to Leyden and interviewed the 
regents of the Orphanage, denouncing Yan as 
an impostor. It mattered littl e that Mej uff rouw 
was at the meeting and spoke for her favorite, 
and that the regents were already favorably im- 
pressed with Yan. There were too large inter- 
ests at stake, and a lawyer was retained to rep- 
resent the Orphanage and contest Yan’s claim. 
As yet he had made none. Mejuffrouw was 


2G2 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


waiting for her Cousin Piet’s return. Yoor- 
helm Hoogstraten’s action had stirred up all 
her antagonism, and she presented the anomaly 
of working with all her might both for and 
against the interests of the Orphanage. She 
spent her last cent for it, she worked to the 
utmost limit of her strength in its service, 
and she insisted to the regents that she would 
never give up the fight for the rights of her 
family. 

“You shall never have one penny of our an- 
cestor’s legacy,” she would declare, and then 
she would plan a larger building for the nursery, 
and figure that if Piet’s family and Lieutenant 
Dirk and the others would only contribute a 
sum equal to their share in that legacy, what a 
magnificent foundation might be made in the 
name of the family ! Dear, inconsistent, kind- 
hearted Mejuffrouw ! Van admired her energy 
and loved her more for her kindliness every 
day, and meantime something of the same war 
was waging in his own heart. If the cause of 
the family triumphed a certain sum would fall 
to his own share — not large, it was true, but 
enough for him to marry Winnie and to take 
her back to the old manor house on the Hud- 


CERTAIN DIFFICULTIES, 


263 


son, where his lady mother was now taking 
boarders. Was not his duty to his mother and 
his betrothed a higher one than any call of phil- 
anthropy to build a nursery for the care of a 
few hundred babies ? Sometimes he thought 
of putting the problem before Winnie, but he 
rejected the idea, knowing well that the noble 
girl would decide for self-sacrifice. It was 
easier to let things drift, and he decided not to 
decide, with a vague feeling that indecision in 
this case might be wrong decision. 


CHAPTER XII. 


JOHN NASH APPEALS. 



ID Winnie make 
any outcry, or 
betray Milly’s 
condition to Sta- 
cey, or alarm Mrs. Rose- 
veldt ? Any one who 
imagines that she did 
any of these things does 
not know the resolute 
girl. She drew the couch 
close to the open win- 
dow, dashed water on 
Milly’s face, and used 
the ordinary means which a trained nurse would 
have done to bring her to consciousness, and all 
so noiselessly that Mrs. Roseveldt in the next 
room was not disturbed. Then she heated 
water over her spirit lamp, assisted her to re- 


JOHN NASH APPEALS. 


265 


tire, and placed the hot-water bag at her feet, 
blew out the candle, and kissed Milly good- 
night, with such a cheerful, matter-of-fact air 
that Milly did not realize that anything out of 
the common had happened, and imagined that 
she had simply fallen asleep. But though she 
went away to her own room to add to this im- 
pression (for it would have alarmed Milly if she 
had realized that she was watched), Winnie tip- 
toed back in the wee small hours, and was re- 
lieved to find her patient sleeping normally. 

She was a little anxious as to what might 
happen when Milly awoke, and she rose early 
and entered her room, half fearing that she 
might find her in brain fever. But Milly 
opened her eyes and met Winnie’s inquiring 
gaze with a perplexed but perfectly sane ex- 
pression. 

What does it all mean, Winnie she asked 
wearily. I have been lying awake going all 
over everything, and I can’t understand it at 
all and she related all the strange chain of 
experiences — ‘‘phenomena,” Mr. Oudenrogge 
would have called them— which had happened 
to her since they started upon the voyage. 
“ This is really Stacey, I know, and possibly it 


266 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


was Stacey whom I saw at the Ryks Museum ; 
but what surely cannot be explained is his 
presence on the steamer when he was not 
there. That must have been his astral 
body.” 

No, Milly, for astral bodies are impalpable, 
they say, and when touched the hand closes on 
nothing. Stacey’s familiar carried you down 
to your stateroom when you were ill. Do you 
suppose a ghost could have done that ?” 

No, and that plush carriage-robe was not 
an astral appearance ; it had just as much sub- 
stance as a similar one that John spread on the 
ground for me to sit on when I was sketching 
the other day in the meadow. ” 

Winnie uttered a little scream. “ Milly, it 
is all perfectly clear to me. It was that very 
carriage-robe, dear, which Stacey gave John 
Nash, and it was John Nash whom you saw on 
the steamer and who carried you down- stairs. 
Ask him.” 

But John Nash does not look in the leasfc 
like Stacey, and this appearance, I mean this 
man — for I believe now that he was real — had 
on Stacey’s overcoat, the very one that he used 
take out yachting at Shinnecock.” 


JOHN NASH APPEALS. 


267 


“Yes, dear, and Stacey gave that to John 
Nash, too.’’ 

“ It may be. How clever you are to have 
guessed it !” 

“ I did not guess it, Yan wrote me so in one 
of his letters and Winnie hurried away and 
returned with the letter received at the Hague, 
which she had only half read to Milly. 

“This explains all the ship mystery,” said 
Milly, “ and the baggage I saw at the hotel at 
the Hague. ’ ’ A red spot burned in either cheek 
as she read on. “Van is not complimentary 
to me,” she said. “‘Miss Roseveldt’s rejec- 
tion is the very best thing which could have 
happened to Stacey ; it has made a man of 
him.’ ” 

“No, Yan was unpardonably rude, and that 
was why I did not read the letter to you.” 

“ It is true though. Stacey told me enough 
last night for me to see that he is quite free 
from my old influence, which had such a de- 
plorable effect upon him. I ought to be glad — 
of course I am glad that it is so.” 

“ We will not discuss that point,” Winnie 
replied. “I can see John Nash at work by 
the sheepfolds in the clearing. Come down 


268 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


and have yonr coffee, and we will join him and 
talk up the steamer adventures.” 

Milly had brought her camp-stool and sketch- 
book, and had a long chat with John Nash, 
while Winnie returned to the inn to bid Stacey 
good-morning, and to explain Milly’ s halluci- 
nations. 

‘‘Trust me,” she had said to Milly, “the 
young man’s conceit will not be the least in- 
creased when I am through with him. I shall 
dwell on his remarkable resemblance to John 
Nash, who is not strikingly handsome, and he 
shall understand that the fact that you have 
concerned yourself a good deal about him of 
late is simply owing to Mr. Oudenrogge’s won- 
derful skill as a romancer, and because this 
phenomenal resemblance lent itself to such an 
illusion, just as you would have built up a 
ghost story about John in case you had hap- 
pened to see Stacey in John’s clothes under the 
same inexplicable circumstances.” 

Milly smiled. “ He will think me an idiot,” 
she said ; “ but that is of no consequence.” 

John Nash was so delighted when he heard 
that Stacey had arrived, that he left his paint- 
ing outfit where the sheep would have licked 


JOHN NA8E APPEALS. 


269 


the palette clean if Milly had not protected 
it, and left Milly herself in the midst of her 
inquiries to rush into the inn dining-room 
like a Western cyclone, and overturn a pot 
of hot chocolate on Stacey’s hand in his effu- 
sive happiness. He rushed back for his lin- 
seed oil and paint rags in which to bind up the 
scalded hand, and then attached himself to 
Stacey, entirely forgetting Milly and his work 
in the field. They came out together with Win- 
nie after Stacey had finished his breakfast, and 
all discussed the different links which had fitted 
into each other so well. 

‘‘I’d no idea I was making such a row,” 
John Nash said. “ I wanted to up and speak to 
you like a man on the steamer, but I daresn’t ; 
I was afraid you’d turn me down.” 

“Yes, I was photographing and studying 
the models of the ships at the Ryks Museum,” 
Stacey admitted. “That was partly what 
brought me to Amsterdam. Father is pleased 
with my mania for naval architecture, and I 
am to make it my profession for life. It is so 
good to have found something that one can do, 
and something that one’s ancestors approve of. 
Father used to want me to go into the navy, 


270 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


and because I didn’t take to that sort of life he 
gave up all interest in me, but this seems to 
please him Just as much. It is such fun to see 
his pleasure over my plans and models, and he 
has helped me a great deal with his knowledge. 
We are both surprised to find how sympathetic 
we are, and mother is the happiest of the three. 
It is remarkable to see how foolish mothers 
can be over their sons.” As Stacey spoke he 
absently filled a meerschaum pipe, which Milly 
recognized as the one which had been offered 
her at Marken, and that she had seen again in 
the park. 

‘‘ I can tell you where you were on the day 
before I saw you at the museum,” she said 
demurely. 

I doubt it,” he replied, ‘‘for I was not 
studying, I took a day off. ’ ’ 

“ Yes, and went to Marken and bought that 
pipe of an old man in balloon breeches who 
accosted you in front of the church.” 

“Exactly. Were you in Marken that day, 
too ?” 

“No, but the day before;” and Milly re- 
frained from telling how she had been minded 
to buy the pipe for him. 


JOHN NASH APPEALS. 


271 


‘‘ That’s queer,” Stacey replied. I was re- 
minded of you that afternoon.” 

‘‘How?” Milly asked, but Stacey changed 
the subject, for the truth had been that the old 
man had first offered him a curious gold chain 
with threads of pearls, begging him to buy it 
for his sweetheart, and that Stacey had thought 
how he would have liked to place it where 
the turquoise necklace had nestled, but had 
repulsed the man, saying he had no sweet- 
heart. 

“ I wonder if you can tell where I was the 
day after you saw me at the Hyks Museum ? 
At any rate, I can tell you where you were. 
At Zaandam, for I saw your name later in the 
day under my own in the visitors’ book in 
Peter the Great’s little hovel. This camera 
must have been on the chair beside the table ; 
didn’t you notice it ?” 

Milly looked at Winnie and smiled. 

“ But why was a card marked with some 
Dutch name, Mr. Booker or something like 
that, tucked inside the strap over yours ?” 

“ That must have been the placard which the 
caretaker thrust under my nose, ‘ Verboden zu 
Rooken ^ — smoking forbidden;” and then all 


272 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


laughed merrily at Winnie, and twitted her 
with her friend Mynheer Yerboden zu Rooken. 

At luncheon Mr. Oudenrogge appeared. Win- 
nie met him with freezing dignity, which was 
entirely lost upon him, for he had the cuticle of 
a pachyderm, and was perfectly impervious 
to cuts. He seated himself beside Milly, and 
thanked her for the compliment she had done 
him by taking him au serieux the night before. 

Then Winnie was right, and you were 
merely playing on our sensibilities by telling 
made-up stories as though they were true.” 

‘‘Exactly,” he replied. “I do not know 
whether there is any truth in theosophy or not ; 
there certainly was none in my stories. 1 have 
found the field a fine one for the up-to-date 
ghost story, but I rarely have such success as 
last night, though I flatter myself that I tell a 
tale rather well. Your implicit and childlike 
confidence put me on my mettle.” 

“ But you assured us that they were real ex- 
periences. ” 

“ That was to give them vraisemhlance and 
add to the local color.” 

Milly left the table without a word, and 
Stacey, who sat opposite, said pointedly, “ If 


JOHN NASH APPEALS. 


273 


the gentleman will accompany me to my room 
we will continue this conversation.” 

I do not know you,” said Mr. Oudenrogge 
scornfully, and I have no desire to have any 
conversation with you.” 

‘ ‘ The feeling is mutual, ’ ’ Stacey replied. ‘ ‘ I 
shall be even better satisfied if you will sign 
this paper. It is no fault of yours that Miss 
Roseveldt has escaped nervous shock as a re- 
sult of your deliberate lying.” 

Mr. Oudenrogge bridled, then cringed. There 
was something in the young man’ s appearance 
and manner which inspired alarm, and he 
traced his name and hurriedly took his leave, 
muttering, Of course I am willing to apolo- 
gize ; I only intended it as a joke.” 

Every one gave a gasp of relief, and Mrs. 
Roseveldt scolded Stacey for his impetuosity. 

What did you make him say she asked. 

Only this,” Stacey replied, showing the 
paper. 

“ I hereby apologize most humbly to all who 
have done me the honor to listen to and believe 
my stories, acknowledging them and myself to 
be unscrupulous frauds. 


‘‘ J. Oudenrogge.” 


274 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Stacey remained for several days, but there 
was a certain constraint in his relations with 
Milly which spoiled the happiness of his visit. 
He watched her go and come without intruding 
himself upon her. Indeed, when they went 
out on sketching tramps to Larenberg and sur- 
rounding points of interest he was usually 
Winnie’s escort, while John Nash carried 
Milly ’s light easel and camp-stool. 

John Nash’s honest soul was troubled by this 
arrangement. He frequently tried to reverse 
the programme, but without success, especially 
as Stacey always took the lead with Winnie, 
and Milly seemed to depend upon him. But 
he was too blunt, too utterly lacking in finesse 
to be silent, and one day, when they sat a little 
apart from the others, he could not refrain 
from asking her frankly what Stacey had done 
to displease her. 

Milly saw that the question was not prompted 
by impertinence, but by loyalty to his friend, 
and that she must answer him with equal 
candor. 

It is the old wrong,” she said, “ which you, 
of all others, John Nash, must find it difficult 
to forgive. I should think you would hate 


JOHN NASH APPEALS. 


275 


me too, since Stacey did it to win my admira- 
tion.” 

‘‘ I don’t know what yon mean,” John Nash 
replied. “ Stacey never did me any wrong.” 

Was it not a wrong to you as well as 
wTong in itself to show your sketches at Shin- 
necock as his own work ?” 

John Nash flushed with indignation. ‘‘ Look 
here. Miss Roseveldt,” he said, I can see that 
you have never been told the true inwardness 
of that little transaction. Stacey didn’t do that 
on account of you. Bless you, you know you 
weren’t in it at all. It was all for my sake. 
There I was a poor, low-down fellow, that never 
would have dared join the class, for Mr. Chase’s 
sake as well as my own, for every one of his 
swell pupils would have left if I had had the 
cheek to present myself in the studio. There 
I was, discouraged, poor, starving, and Stacey 
picked me up, invited me to his cottage as his 
friend, and when I would only come as his ser- 
vant, gave me the wages without letting me 
perform the duties. Many a time he has 
blacked both of our boots and washed the 
dishes, so that I should have more time to 
paint in the little studio he rigged up for me. 


276 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


Posed for me, too, though he had to send you 
regrets for invitations which you sent him. 
That doesn’t look as if he was working for your 
admiration, does it ?” 

‘ ‘ But the fact remains that the pictures 
which you painted were shown as his work.” 

Because I begged him to do it,” Miss Bose- 
veldt. “ I was dying for Mr. Chase’s criticism, 
but you might have chopped me into mince- 
meat before I would have carried those pictures 
in and set ’em up before the class, and then 
stood up and took the punishment, hot and 
heavy, for making such beastly things. But 
Stacey, he did it for my sake. ‘ I’ll do it, 
Nash,’ says he, ‘ if you will let me tell at the 
final breaking-up. I am not going off with all 
the credit,’ says he ; ‘ you’ve got to have your 
rights.’ So I would tote the pictures over and 
set ’em up, and then sit just outside on the 
door-step and listen to Mr. Chase haul him 
over the coals, and say he didn’t see how he 
could be so stupid ; and Stacey would never 
let on, but would just take it all, standing there 
with folded arms, sort of smiling like, in a way 
that must have been very aggravating to Mr. 
Chase, while the sweat just poured down my 


JOHN NASH APPEALS. 


m 


back just to listen out there where no one saw 
me. But little by little I began to catch on and 
to do better, and then you’d ought to have seen 
how tickled Stacey was. ‘ Bully for you ! ’ 
says he. ‘ Miss Roseveldt praised you to-day. 
She said she never thought I had so much tal- 
ent. No more I have,’ says he. ‘ She was no 
end surprised, but she will be more surprised 
still when she knows the truth.’ I won’t say 
he wasn’t tickled with the praise and petting 
you gave him while it lasted, and I know he 
sort of dreaded what you’d think of him at the 
end, though he’d no idea you’d be so mad as 
you was and treat him so mean. Beg your 
pardon, I can’t help saying what I think of it, 
now you’ve got me started. As I was saying, 
he did kind of surmise you wouldn’t be pleased ; 
but, my ! that didn’ t have no influence over 
him ; he cared more for helping me than he did 
for what you would think.” 

The red deepened in Milly’s cheek. ‘‘And 
I, who thought I had so much influence over 
him!” she thought. “I haven’t lost it. I 
never had any.” 

“ I used to say to him, ‘ Folks only praise 
the things because they think you did them.’ 


278 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


‘ It’ll be a great joke on them when the don’t 
know maum” comes,’ says he.” 

‘‘ The what ?” asked Milly. 

The ‘ don’t know maum.’ Stacey was always 
talking about that — the time when they should 
all know that they weren’t so smart.” 

‘‘ I think you must mean the denouement. 

‘‘ Well, maybe that’s the stylish way of pro- 
nouncing it, or the Dutch of it. Stacey was 
always looking forward to the fun he’d have 
when the cat was out of the bag ; but he found 
it wasn’t so funny, after all.” 

There were tears in Milly’ s eyes, but they 
were happy tears. Stacey’s error was one of 
judgment ; he had not meant to do wrong. 
There was something almost maternal in Milly’ s 
affection for Stacey. If he were really good, 
she did not care for the humiliation which came 
with the thought that she had overrated her 
own consequence as a factor in his life. So 
unselfish was she, that for the moment she had 
no thought of her own happiness, thrown away 
so uselessly, when she had put Stacey’s love 
from her, because she fancied that it led him to 
unworthy acts for her sake. Stacey was not 
base, was not an unprincipled rascal — that was 


JOHN NASH APPEALS. 


279 


happiness enough. She rejoiced so much in 
this, that the thought of what he had suffered 
from her undeserved scorn only came to her 
with a pang of remorse a little later when John 
Nash, misinterpreting her silence, said : 

‘‘You don’t seem to believe me, and I don’t 
know as I should expect you to if you can mis- 
understand as white a man as Stacey, and treat 
him so all-fired mean !” Here, with a vigorous 
dash, he blotted out a carefully painted group 
of ducks. “ Why, then — well, I haven’t any 
words for it, that’s all !” 

“ I have,” Milly replied. “I’ve an apology 
to make to Stacey.” 

John Nash could scarcely believe his ears. 

“Well,” he exclaimed — “well, now you’re 
talkin’ !” 


CHAPTEE XIIL 


PIET YAN PIETERZOON’s OPINION — HAPPY DAYS 
AT LAREN. 


" OME unforeseen influences 
in Leyden, as we have 
seen, had complicated 
matters for the claim- 
ants of the Van Pieter- 
zoon legacy. Events 
were also transpiring 
afar in Africa which had 
their bearing on the 
matter. Piet Van Pie- 
terzoon had gone to Na- 
tal simply on account of 
his business interests. 
He found the country 
in great excitement on account of political mat- 
ters. His sympathies were with the Boers, who 
were of Dutch extraction, and with whom he 



PIET VAN PIETEBZ00N8 OPINION. 281 


was thrown during liis stay ; but he had some 
business transactions with an Englishman from 
whom he had purchased a plantation, which 
brought him under the suspicion of the Boers. 
It had been proved that Mynheer Yan Pieter- 
zoon had given the Englishman a check for a 
large amount, and a stalwart Boer by the name 
of Bergh was deputed to investigate the matter. 
The man called upon Mynheer, and asked his 
business in Natal. Being told that it was to 
purchase land, Bergh asked Mynheer to visit a 
farm of his in the interior. It was not until 
the guest found himself in a stockaded house, 
which resembled a fort more than a home, that 
he realized that he was a prisoner. Still con- 
scious of his innocence, he maintained a cool 
demeanor, and did not manifest any alarm. 
Bergh, though of Butch parentage, had been 
born and brought up in Natal. He spoke a 
patois called Tal, which was not pure Butch, 
and his interests were entirely with the colony. 
He had, indeed, a vague curiosity about his 
Fatherland, which he hoped some day to see, 
and where he intended to send his boys to be 
educated, and he asked Mynheer Yan Pieter- 
zoon a hundred questions about it, with the 


282 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


double aim of informing himself and of ascer- 
taining whether he were the genuine Dutchman 
which he pretended to be. To aid him in these 
investigations he had asked his wife to serve at 
table, and to listen sharply to all that was said. 
Mrs. Bergh had been born in Holland, and had 
not emigrated until she was eighteen years of 
age, so that she was better qualified to be a de- 
tective in this instance than her husband. She 
placed a dish oi poffertjes before her guest, and 
watched the evident gratification which accom- 
panied their disappearance. 

“ Who would have thought to have found 
poffertjes in Africa ?” said Mynheer Yan Pieter- 
zoon gratefully. Surely you could have 
learned to make these only in Holland.” 

‘‘ True,” she replied ; ‘Mn Leyden.” 

And then Mynheer spoke of the city with 
such evident knowledge that Mrs. Bergh asked : 

Mynheer is from Leyden ?” 

‘‘No, from Amsterdam ; but our family are 
Leydeners.” 

“We are going to send our sons to the uni- 
versity,” said Mrs. Bergh with pride. 

“ Yes ? and there has always been a Yan 
Pieterzoon in the university until this year.” 


PIET VAN PIETERZOON’S OPINION. 283 


“Yanwhatf’ 

‘‘Van Pieterzoon ; it is my name. If you 
liv^ed in Leyden, you may have seen the Van 
Pieterzoon Orphanage, which was founded by 
our family.” 

The tears came into the good woman’s eyes, 
and she turned and looked at her husband, who 
came forward and took Mynheer’s hand. 

‘‘ Whatever you may be, you come of good 
stock,” he said. My wife was brought up in 
that Orphanage. She was one of seven daugh- 
ters ; four died in infancy from illness brought 
on by poverty ; two might better have died, for 
they grew up with the education of the streets, 
and went evil ways. My wife was taken to the 
Orphanage on the death of her mother and 
cared for as a child should be, and educated in 
all that a woman should know, and when she 
became a woman the Orphanage sent her with 
some other young girls to a home here, where 
they were all married to young settlers, to men 
of character and substance, like me. Have you 
ever regretted it, Wimpje ?” 

For answer Mrs. Bergh came and placed her 
hand on her husband’s brawny shoulder. 
“ You have made my life happy, Jan,” she 


284 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


said ; / ‘ but I have always considered that you 
and my boys and my happy home here in 
Natal were as much the gift of the Yan Pieter- 
zoons as the kindnesses that were done me at 
the Orphanage, and I have wished that I could 
some day repay the debt. There are twenty of 
our neighbors that stand in the same case : 
Mevrouw Beekman, and Hendrick Hooft’s wife, 
and Nick Cat’s, and Joost Momper’s, and Wil- 
helmina Yan Osterwijk, and Jacoba Mol, and 
Josselyn Yan Wijck— ” 

Stop, woman ; say briefly that the wives of 
all the Council are from the Yan Pieterzoon 
Orphanage. You are saved, man. If you 
stood there a convicted spy instead of a sus- 
pected one, sentenced to hanging instead of in 
danger thereof, you would still be sent away 
under safe convoy, for the wives of all our 
chief men would hold your life safe in their 
hands. I know not how it may be in Holland, 
but women are so scarce with us that they do 
with us as they please ; and we have a saying, 
that when Eve was fashioned it was from the 
brains of Adam, not his rib, for, verily, when 
woman comes the brains of man go.” 

Mynheer Yan Pieterzoon was able later to 


PIET VAN P1ETERZ00N8 OPINION. 285 


prove his innocence to the satisfaction of the 
Boers, who treated him with great hospitality 
and kindness ; but he never forgot that but for 
the fortunate fact that an ancestor of his had 
founded the Leyden Orphanage he might have 
been given short shrift by these stern men. 
Therefore, when his Aunt Amalia’s letter 
reached him bearing the news that a relative 
had arrived from America who would fulfil the 
conditions of the will and secure the family 
legacy, he had a feeling that, so far as he was 
concerned, he would, as a thankoffering, and in 
recognition of the good the institution was 
d^ing, have been willing that the legacy should 
have lapsed to the Orphanage ; and when that 
letter was followed by one from his lawyer, 
Yoorhelm Hoogstraten, denouncing the claim- 
ant as an impostor, Piet Yan Pieterzoon sat 
down and wrote his man of affairs, that since ' 
he could not reach home in time to attend to 
the matter himself, he gave him complete power 
to act for him in all matters connected with the 
legacy. Armed with this authority, Yoorhelm 
Hoogstraten set out for Antwerp, to bring the 
recalcitrant lieutenant to terms. What was his 
disgust to find that Hirk Yan Pieterzoon was 


280 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


obdurate. He would not resign from the army, 
he would not practise medicine, and he would 
not study at the University of Leyden. 

^^Then,” said the angry Hoogstraten, ‘‘I 
shall not give you my consent to marry my 
daughter. I shall send Jacoba to some friends 
of ours in Dutch Guiana ; she was teasing me 
to do so only the other day.” 

The astute Dirk did not feel it necessary to 
explain that Jacoba’ s willingness to emigrate 
might have something to do with the intimation 
he had given her that his regiment was soon to 
be ordered to the colony. 

‘^Do your worst,” he replied, ‘‘and I give 
you fair warning it shall be diamond cut dia- 
mond, but I will not fulfil the conditions of the 
will.” 

“ Then you lose your share of the legacy, as 
does every member of the family.” 

“ Let them, we are rich enough without 
it.” 

Yoorhelm Hoogstraten frothed with rage. 
He bounded from the room and hurried Jacoba 
away to Paramaribo, only to find out his mis- 
take when the departure of Dirk’s regiment for 
the same place was officially announced, and 


PIET VAN PIETERZ00N8 OPINION 287 


he realized that instead of hindering he had 
hastened the marriage. Then most bitterly 
did he regret his action in rousing the regents 
of the Orphanage to oppose Dr. Yan Silver- 
Peterson’s claims, the only means of keeping 
the legacy in the family. He considered the 
situation in all its bearings, legal and family, 
and then buttoned Piet Van Pieterzoon’s letter 
empowering him to act in the matter safely in 
the inside pocket of his coat and took the train 
for Leyden. 

In the mean time the days were slipping 
away at Laren, gliding on golden slippers of 
art and happiness. Stacey was supposed to be 
studying at the Ryks Museum, but if Winnie’s 
truly Celtic remark could be credited, the stoom 
tram brought him out to Laren more frequently 
than it took him back. Mrs. Fitz- Simmons and 
Mrs. Roseveldt exchanged visits and renewed 
their old intimacy. The commodore chartered 
a steam launch and took them all for a little 
trip of a few days’ cruising about in the Zuider 
Zee and through the great Noordzee Kanaal to 
the ocean. The commodore was interested in 
visiting the scenes of noted naval battles, and 
especially that of Holder, where the Dutch ad- 


288 


Wircil WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


mirals De Ruyter and Tromp defeated the united 
English and French fleets. They passed the 
Yrowensand (lady’s sand) of Stavoren, which is 
gradually destroying its harbor. The mischief 
is attributed to the wife of a shipowner who 
desired one of her husband’s captains to bring 
her a cargo of the most precious commodity in 
the world, and was so indignant when he re- 
turned with a shipload of wheat that she had it 
sunk in the harbor. The legend relates that 
the grain took root and formed the foundation 
of the sandbank. 

At Hoorn they came on the track of the 
Hutch admirals again, and the commodore told 
them of a church -tower he had seen in Zeeland 
where the sword of the Sx)anish Captain Mon- 
dragme is used as a lightning-rod, and the fre- 
quency with which it is struck convinces the 
inhabitants of the abhorrence in which God still 
holds the Spaniards. 

It is very remarkable that your friend, 
Mejuffrouw Yan Pieterzoon, should be willing 
to acknowledge her Spanish ancestry. Why, 
the very cats in Rotterdam cannot bear the 
sound of the Spanish language ; but then they 
have good reason.” 


PIET VAN PIETERZOONS OPINION 289 


Why, commodore,” Milly asked, did the 
Spaniards massacre the cats 

“No, but the Dutch did, and the sagacious 
animals are supposed to know the reason. 
Have you never heard of the House of Forty 
Fears ? When the Spaniards put Rotterdam 
to the sword, and bands of murderers wandered 
through the town, killing and burning, the 
people who lived in this house had the wit to 
kill their cats and pour out their blood on the 
door-step, marking the walls and sides of the 
door with the prints of bloody hands. They 
left the door wide open, broke the glass in the 
windows, threw the furniture on the lower floor 
into the utmost confusion, and on the next 
floor they set fire to their eiderdown feather- 
beds, letting the smoke pour through the open 
windows. Then they barricaded themselves in 
the rooms in the upper story and waited. Dif- 
ferent detachments of Spaniards passed through 
the streets, but each believed that some of their 
men had been before them and had already 
sacked the house. The eiderdown beds were 
discreetly extinguished before the fire had done 
any other damage, and the family escaped ; 
but no cats could be induced to inhabit the 


290 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


house thereafter ; and a Rotterdam cat will run 
if you say good-morning to it in Spanish. Fact, 
for I experimented with one myself.” 

The others laughed. ‘‘ Did you try Dutch ?” 
they asked, well knowing that there was only 
one Dutch phrase which the commodore had 
mastered. This was “ Heil morg' ’ (very pretty), 
which he used on all occasions, and generally 
with great success. 

While the others were making this little 
cruise Winnie had remained at Laren, the others 
finding it impossible to induce her to give up 
for mere pleasure, even for a few days, the 
artistic privileges of the little colony. Insensi- 
bly her style changed, her interiors became rich, 
harmonious, and colorful, her landscapes were 
painted in that lower register of pearly grays 
and silvery greens which Mauve loved— no 
more garish effects of sunlight in the French 
pleine air school of chrome greens and vivid 
blues, which had fascinated her for a time. It 
was not that she no longer saw these effects in 
brilliant sunlight, but that she preferred the 
veiled skies of, the northern coast, softened by 
the mists which drift over the dykes and dunes, 
and blur and quiet to brilliant colors. When 


PIET VAN PIETERZ00N8 OPINION, 291 


Milly questioned lier as to the change which 
had come over her tastes, Winnie referred her 
to Zola’s vigorous presentation of his feelings 
on visiting the salon for the first time after 
many years. Zola had been won in his youth 
by the impressionistic pictures of Monet and 
Pissarro, and had fought for them in his critiques 
in the press, but when he saw the pitch to which 
the followers of these artists had carried their 
theories, he was shocked by the result. His 
forceful rendering of his condition of mind after 
the visit will explain not only Winnie’s atti- 
tude of mind, but that of many another lover 
of art. 

What doubles my astonishment” (in this 
work of the modern impressionists), says Zola, 
‘‘ is the abuse of light which makes of certain 
works cloths that have lost their color through 
long washings. When I look at this washed 
and whitewashed salon,, of a disagreeable chalky 
whiteness, I almost regret the black, bituminous 
salon of former days. That was too black, but 
this is too white. Life is more varied, warmer, 
and more supple. And I, who fought so vio- 
lently for the open air, the light tonalities, find 
tjiat a feeling of exasperation takes possession 


292 


WITCH WmmE /xY HOLLAND. 


of me as I survey this continuous file of blood- 
less pictures, dreamily pale, designedly chlo- 
rotic, so that I sigh for an artist of severity and 
shadow. 

But the point where my surprise turns to 
anger is when I note the madness to which the 
theory of reflections has led. Very justly we 
maintained that the lighting of objects and 
figures is not simple ; that under trees naked 
flesh takes on a greenish tinge. Yet nothing 
is more delicate to grasp than these reflections, 
this play of sunlight — the transition to carica- 
ture is quick. What disconcerting works we 
see ! These multi-colored women, these violet 
landscapes, and these orange horses, accom- 
panied with a scientiflc explanation that they 
are thus and thus because of such a decompo- 
sition of the solar spectrum. Oh the women 
with one cheek blue under the moon and the 
other vermilion under a lamp-shade ! Oh the 
horizons where the trees are blue, the waters 
red, and the skies green ! It is frightful, 
frightful ! 

“ Monet and Pissarro, the first to do so, I be- 
lieve, delightfully studied these reflections. 
But what delicacy and art they displayed,! 


Officers of the Corps of Archers of Saint Adrien, by Frans Hals. 






PIET VAN PIETERZOONS OPINION 393 

Every movement tends to exaggeration, turns 
into process and falsehood as soon as fashion 
seizes it. There is no truth, just and good, at 
the beginning that does not become by imita- 
tion the worst of errors, the invasive darnel that 
must be rnerciTessly mowed down.” 

All of these ideas and theories and many 
others were discussed among the young artists 
at Laren. Nothing is more delightful than life 
in an art colony of this kind, from the friction 
of mind upon mind, and Laren artists were not 
all of one school. Winnie did not confine her- 
self entirely to animal painting. The interiors 
of the weavers’ cottages were so rich in color, 
with the light filtering through the small win- 
dows — Neuhuys and Kever, in their charming 
genre paintings, appealed so strongly to her 
sympathies, that she, too, painted some studies 
of blond-headed, white-capped peasant children, 
like pond lilies blossoming on the dusk of some 
murky pool. 

Stacey sat by them frequently as they painted, 
reading aloud from Maarten Maartens, or pos- 
ing as a shepherd in a rough coat, or assuming 
the stooping attitude of a woodcutter. Milly 
was happy, she hardly knew why, for there 


294 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND, 


had been no word of explanation between Stacey 
and herself further than the generous admission 
on her part that she had misjudged him, and 
Stacey had not presumed on this to ask for 
more than the friendship which she had offered. 
It was bliss enough to feel the weight of her 
scorn removed. He feared that if he claimed 
more, that all would vanish, and he believed 
that this happy result had been brought about 
through his assuring Milly that he had become 
reconciled to giving her up. And all the time 
he knew it was not true, that he loved her more 
than ever, that the blond head and sweet blue 
eyes had grown inexpressibly dear to him, that 
it was happiness just to look at them, and how 
he could ever summon up courage to tear him- 
self away when the time came for him to enter 
the School of Naval Architecture was more 
than he could foresee. 

And Milly, seeing his love in his eyes, though 
he spoke no word, was happier than she had 
been since the old days at Shinnecock. She did 
not admit to herself that any part of this happi- 
ness came from a realization of his love ; she only 
said to her heart, over and over, with ineffable 
content, ‘ ‘ Stacey is good ; Stacey is really good P ’ 


CHAPTER Xiy. 


A LETTER EROM AMERICA. 



wlio have read the 
preceding volumes of 


this series will not 
need to be told of the 
Children’s Charity for 
Children, the Messiah 
Home, in which Milly 
and Winnie, Adelaide 
and Tib were so great- 
ly interested. What- 
ever else may be im- 
aginary in these sto- 
ries (and the author 
does not pretend that everything really hap- 
pened just as has been told), the Messiah Home 
and its beautiful work is true. 

The Junior League, a society of children, de- 
scribed in the volume “ Witch Winnie at Ver- 


296 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


sailles,” is a live society doing good work. 
During the past winter they held a number of 
meetings, gave a May-day festival, which cleared 
over six hundred dollars for the Home, and pub- 
lished a paper of their own. This paper was 
issued more particularly to interest members of 
the League not living in New York. Thirteen 
prizes were offered for the best stories and illus- 
trations by children not over thirteen years of 
age, and those receiving the awards were pub- 
lished. Any one addressing a letter of inquiry 
to Mrs. J. W. Champney, 96 Fifth Avenue, 
New York, will receive full particulars in re 
gard to the Charity League, which all children 
everywhere are invited to join. But we will let 
Tib tell her friends the story of its work during 
the season of 1895 -96. 

“ New York, May 3. 

Dear Winnie and Milly : I know it is a 
long time since I have written you, but you will 
pardon me when you hear how busy I have 
been, principally in attending to the correspond- 
ence relating to the Junior League. The paper 
is very creditable to such young authors. The 
editors of different prominent magazines took a 
great deal of interest in the work, and busy as 


A LETTER FROM AMERICA. 


297 


they are, examined the stories most conscien- 
tiously and awarded the prizes. I send here- 
with a copy of the paper. I am sure you will 
enjoy ‘ The Most Humorous Story,’ ^ Bones,’ 
and the most amusing drawings which accom- 
pany the ‘ Ballad of Anna.’ 

I have to thank you for a suggestion of 
yours, which made the success of our season. I 
refer to your enthusiastic letter describing the 
tournament at Antwerp. We could not get up 
un entree joyeux^ such as you planned, but I 
saw that something in the way of a spectacular 
procession might be managed, and as the chil- 
dren of the League wanted a May-pole dance 
for the first of May, we arranged it in a 
style resembling as nearly as possible the old 
Rubenesque fetes of Antwerp, of which you 
wrote. In this instance Professor Carl Mar wig 
was our Rubens, secured to us by the generosity 
of one of our kind patronesses ; another gave 
the May-pole with exquisite decorations of 
lovely garlands of pink and white morning- 
glories and broad satin ribbons of the same 
colors. The League met each week for a month 
to rehearse. Mr. A. M. Palmer gave us the use 
of the Gfarden Theatre for our final performance, 


298 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


and the following programme was elaborated : 
First, Surprise and Crowning of the May Queen. 
This was acted by thirty-six little boys and 
girls, all dressed in white with baby -blue rib- 
bons. There were marches and counter -marches 
and pretty fancy figures in this part, and then 
the May Queen was installed on her grassy 
throne, surrounded by her maids of honor, and 
the various attributes and accompaniments of 
spring came in to do her honor and to greet the 
coming of la belle saison. First was a march 
by tiny boys in green — Blades of Grass they 
were called ; then little girls in pink car- 
rying sprays of apple and peach blossoms, 
followed by all the flowers in more gorgeous 
colors. Then a most beautiful dance by seven 
‘ butterflies,’ in floating, swirling draperies, fol- 
lowed by a flight of birds. After that the most 
comical procession and drill of babies— not real 
babies, but boys dressed in long gowns with 
caps and sashes, all shaking rattles and going 
through the most extravagant capers, because 
the time was coming when they could tumble 
in the new mown hay. After the babies had 
brought down the house, there was a beautiful 
May-pole dance, and then, as a grand flnale, a 


A LETTER FROM AMERICA. 


299 


procession of the sports and games of Spring 
and Summer, in which the children of the 
American Revolution and several prominent 
private schools of the city took part as the 
guests of the League. The boys of our school 
wore the uniform of little middies, and carried a 
racing shell and oars ; another deputation came 
as a baseball nine, and there was a long proces- 
sion of tennis-players with their rackets ; golf- 
players with caddies carrying their outfits ; girls 
in white, with many-colored gauze butterfly 
nets ; tiny children bearing fiags and banners ; 
an archery club with a target ; hunters and 
fishermen with guns and game-bags, rods and 
creels ; gardeners with tools and garlands ; hunt- 
ers in pink coats, and jockeys in harlequin satin 
suits, etc. It was a great success, both artisti- 
cally and financially, for now the treasury holds 
enough to care for the children of the Home 
through the long summer, until all of our 
friends have returned from over seas and from 
the country. 

On the 3d and 4th of December there will 
be a fair at the Waldorf, and the children of 
the League will work for it during the summer. 
We have offered prizes for the best dressed dolls 


300 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


— tlie sewing to be taken into account —and for 
tlie most artistic paper dolls made by children 
under fourteen, and medals are offered for the 
prettiest painted fans. Here the age of the 
artist is not limited, and we hope that you will 
each decorate several for us. So now good-by, 
dear girls ; have a beautiful vacation, but don’t 
get de- Americanized ; come back to us in the 
autumn to pour out some of the sunshine 
which you have stored up in your hearts during 
the summer. 

Most realistically yours. 

As all of our readers may not see the little 
paper published by the Junior League, we copy 
herewith two of the articles which it contains to 
which Tib refers. The first is a hond fide com- 
position, a report handed in by a boy of a read- 
ing on physiology to which he had listened. 

BOXES. 

“Bones is the framework of the body. If I 
had no bones in me I should not have so much 
shape as I have now. If I had no bones in me 
I should not have so much motion, and teacher 
would be pleased, but I like to have motion. 


A LETTER FROM AMERICA. 


3Ui 


‘‘Bones give me motion, because they are 
sometimes hard for motion to cling to. If I 
had no bones, my brains, lungs, heart, and 
larger blood-vessels would be lying around in 
me, and might get hurted ; but now my bones 
get hurted, but not much, unless it is a hard hit. 

‘ ‘ If my bones were burned, I should be brittle, 
because it would take the animal out of me. If 
I was soaked in acid, I should be limber. 
Teacher showed me a bone that had been 
soaked ; I could bend it easily. I should rather 
be soaked than burned. Some of my bones 
don’t grow close to my others snug, like the 
branches to the trunk of a tree, and I am glad 
they don’t, for if they did I could not play leap- 
frog and other good games I know. The reason 
why they don’t grow that way is because they 
have joints. Joints is good things to have in 
bones. They are two kinds. The ball and 
socket joint, like my shoulders, is the best. 
Teacher showed it to me, only it was the thigh 
of a cow. One end was round and smooth and 
whitish. That is the ball end. The other end 
was hollowed in deep. That is the socket, and 
it oils itself. It is the only machine that oils 
itself. It never creaks like the school-door. 


30 ;^ 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


There is another joint that doesn’t seem much 
like a joint. That is the skull. It don’t have 
no motion. All my bones put together in their 
right places make a skeleton. If I leave out 
any or put any in the wrong place it ain’t no 
skeleton. 

Some animals have their skeletons on the 
outside. I am glad I ain’t them animals, for 
my skeleton, like it is on the chart, wouldn’t 
look well on my outside.” 

‘‘ The most humorous drawings” were judged 
by J. A. Mitchell, editor of Life.^ who reports : 

I consider the illustrations for the ^ Melan- 
choly Ballad of Anna ’ the most amusing. The 
‘ Bad Brownies ’ were a close second.” 

The Melancholy Ballad of Anna. 

I. 

Anna saw the Indian 
Behind the greenwood tree, 

And ran as fast as she could run, 

And so did he. 


11 . 

The Indian shot at Anna — 

He shot her with an arrow. 

It pierced her tender little' heart. 
For it was sharp aad narrow. 


A LETTER FROM AMERICA. 


303 





FIVE. 

III. 


Tlie Indian, carried Anna 
And laid her ’neatli the tree. 

Alas ! the gentle maid was dead, 

And bleeding piteouslie. 

IV. 

He called another Indian, 

Who cruel was and rash. 

TJiey chopped her witli their tomahawks, 
They chopped her into hash. 


304 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


V. 

But there was a heroic girl 
Who was a friend to Anna, 

Who stole all of their tomahawks 
In a sly and daring manner — 

She chased those wicked Indians, 

She chased them far away, 

And then she buried Anna, 

You can see her grave to-day. 

Under this class we reproduce the Brownies” 
of the Brown School, Chicago, with apologies 
to Mr. Palmer Cox. 

Ballad of the Bad Brownies. 

a 



I. 

The policeman was deaf and could not hear 
The guns go crickety crack. 

So the brownies had just loads of fun 
Behind the policeman’s back. 


A LETTER FROM AMERICA. 


305 



II. 

The apples were ripe, the apples were red, 
Over the garden wall ; 

The brownies filled their baskets 
But one or two had a fall. 



III. 

The farmer heard the noise and ran 
After the boys down the hill ; 

The farmer ran fast, but the brownies got off— 
Cause why ? They ran faster still. 


CHAPTER XV. 


A DELFT MANDARIN AND A KIRMESSE. 

EFORE the summer was 
quite ended Mejuf- 
frouw Van Pieterzoon 
extended an invita- 
tion to Winnie to visit 
her at Leyden. V an had 
happened to remark to 
the good woman that 
Winnie was interested in 
a similar institution in 
New York, and that 
there were many good 
arrangements in the Leyden Orphanage which 
might give her ideas for the better management 
of the American home ; whereupon Mejuffrouw 
had insisted that Winnie should come and famil- 
iarize herself with all its workings. Winnie 
brought with her her most cheerful studies 



A DELFT MANDAUm AND A KIRME8SE. 307 


made at tlie Hague with Mr. Zilcken and at 
Laren, and suggested a scheme which found 
great favor with the nurses and patients in the 
little hospital at the Orphanage. There was a 
sick child there, little Wilhelmina Rosemboom. 
She had been to the country once, and had seen 
daisy-starred meadows and lily-flecked canals, 
but that had been two years ago, and Minna 
would never leave the hospital ward, for she 
was slowly dying of hip disease. But she 
talked often of that delicious visit to the coun- 
try, and when Winnie sat beside her told her 
of the beautiful things she had seen. 

“ Would you like to have that window in the 
wall, which has been bricked up, just at the 
foot of your bed, opened again Winnie asked 
— ‘‘a window through which you could see a 
lake with fluffy yellow ducklings swimming 
upon it, and children wading and sailing paper 
boats 

The child’s eyes brightened, then darkened 
with disappointment. ‘‘ If there was a window 
through that wall,” she said, ‘‘ you would only 
look down into the yard — Mynheer Storck’s 
soap factory.” 

But this is to be a magic window. Some- 


308 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


times you will see tlie lake, sometimes sunny 
meadows, with lazy cows standing knee-deep 
in clover, sometimes shady woods. You will 
fancy yourself lying on a trekschuit drifting 
along a canal, turning and winding, passing 
through villages and by lonely farms, catching 
glimpses of old windmills and the sails of fish- 
ing-boats, and wonderful sunsets. You shall 
stay just as long as you like before one view, 
and when you tire of it the barge will glide on.” 

The child did not understand just how this 
was to be arranged, but she believed Winnie, 
and fell asleep, dreaming of the magic window. 
When she awoke it was there, for Winnie had 
tiptoed in and noiselessly fitted one of her 
sketches into the frame of the window. She 
had placed a little rod with a muslin curtain in 
front of it, and when she saw that the child’s 
questioning, eager eyes turned toward this cur- 
tain Winnie drew it aside, and there was the 
pond with the lily-pads and the fluffy yellow 
ducklings. Minna clapped her hands with de- 
light. 

‘‘ And when you are tired of the ducklings,” 
Winnie said, nurse will close the curtain, and 
you can imagine yourself drifting along the 


A DELFT MANDARIN AND A KIRMESSE. 309 


canal, and yon can wish three times where the 
barge shall anchor, aad close your eyes and go 
to sleep like a good child ; then when yon awake 
nurse will draw the curtain back, and you will 
have a new view.” 

‘‘I shall never be tired of the ducklings,” 
Minna said, and all day long the pleasure which 
she took in watching them made her forget her 
pain. 

‘‘That is a capital idea,” said Yan. “It 
ought to be introduced into all hospitals. 
Nothing is so wearisome as the permanent pic- 
ture which the invalid gazes at, until he thinks 
how weary the people must be of eternally hold- 
ing just such positions, and wishes that the sun- 
set clouds would only fade away and quiet star- 
light take their place ; but a succession of beau- 
tiful views, changed at the wish of the patient, 
must be a great refreshment to the mind.” 

As Winnie became more informed as to the 
Orphanage, its work and its needs, the same 
question which had been borne in upon Van’s 
mind came to her with this difference. To Yan 
it had come in this way : “ Have I the right to 
give up a legacy which will make my mother 
and Winnie independent ?” 


310 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


To Winnie it was more personal, and there- 
fore simpler : Shall I allow Van to take this 
money from the poor in order to make us com- 
fortable 

She broached the matter after a more than 
usually busy day, when the good which might 
have been accomplished with greater means was 
very evident. 

‘‘Van,” she said abruptly, am sorry I 
wrote for you to come to Holland. I don’t 
think you have any right to divert the Orphan- 
age money to the Van Pieterzoons. I don’t 
think you have any right to it yourself.” 

For answer he took her hand. I am proud 
of you, Winnie,” he said ; ‘‘but do you know 
what this means to us ?” 

“ That we must wait a while longer to be 
married, but that is no matter.” 

“ Don’t you care ? Is that so slight a thing 
that — ” 

The look she gave him silenced the reproach. 

“ Winnie, you are a trump. I’ll go back to 
America as soon as I have finished this course 
of lectures, and I’ll make a home for you soon 
without the help of the Van Pieterzoons.” 

“ Of course you will, you noble fellow but 


A DELFT MANDARIN AND A K1RME88E. 311 


as to what was said between the two, in legal 
parlance, “ further deponent testifieth not.” 

One day toward the close of Winnie’s visit, 
as they were dining in Mejuffrouw’s Delft deco- 
rated dining room. Mynheer Piet Yan Pieter- 
zoon was announced. He had stopped at Ley- 
den on his way home, having come by rail from 
a southern port of France, and had not been to 
Amsterdam or seen his notary. It was a pleas- 
ant surprise to them all. The good man took 
his seat at the head of the table in the capacious 
armchair, which only a true Yan Pieterzoon 
could adequately fill. Winnie could not help 
noticing how much he resembled the pt)rcelain 
Chinese mandarin on a shelf behind him. This 
mandarin was a bit of rare old Delft, and had 
been ingeniously constructed to serve as a chest 
of spices. Each of the buttons on his china 
waistcoat was the knob to a little drawer, and 
Winnie could not rid herself of the whimsical 
idea that if she pulled Mynheer Yan Pieter- 
zoon’ s waistcoat buttons little porcelain drawers 
containing cloves, allspice, or cinnamon would 
spring from his ample interior. Mynheer was 
cordial, but when Mejuffrouw plunged into a 
rehearsal of the proof of Yan’s relationship, he 


312 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


was not enthusiastic. He looked over the 
papers very carefully, and his brow clouded. 

‘‘ It is all very convincing,” he said, ‘‘ and it 
is a jjity that I should have been called to Africa 
at just this juncture, for now the time during 
which his pretensions should have been proved 
has elapsed.” 

“ Xo matter,” replied Mejuffrouw ; “our 
American cousin was here and enrolled as a 
student of the university before the expiration 
of the time. He was just as much our cousin 
before we recognized him as afterward. I do 
not see but the conditions of the will have been 
fulfilled.” 

“ Unfortunately application should have been 
made to the court in his behalf by myself, as the 
oldest male representative of the family, and in 
their name, in order to have our succession to the 
legacy established and confirmed legally. This is 
especially necessary if there is any other claim- 
ant, and I suppose the regents will protest.” 

“ The regents have protested,” said Mejuf- 
frouw grimly. “ That beast, Yoorhelm Hoog- 
straten stirred them up to it. Would that the 
Inquisition were still in force that I might have 
him put to the torture !” 


A DELFT MANDARIN AND A KIRME8SE. 313 


Piet Yan Pieterzoon winced, for he thought of 
his letter to his notary from Natal, fully author- 
izing him to act in his stead, and against this 
American pretender if he so pleased. 

If Dr. Yan Silver has not succeeded in estab- 
lishing your right to the legacy,” said Winnie, 
‘‘ he will regret if it brings disappointment to 
you or Mejuffrouw, but surely you will not 
mind it so very much, since it increases the 
field of so noble a charity.” 

‘‘ Miss De Witt voices my feeling precisely,” 
said Dr. Yan Silver. 

“ Tut, tut,” replied Mynheer, a little impa- 
tiently ; ‘ ^ you forget that we are not the only 
losers. If your descent from Cornells Yan 
Pieterzoon had been established in time, you 
would have come in for a good little plum your- 
self.” 

‘‘ I understood that perfectly,” Yan replied. 

‘‘Then why didn’t you inform yourself of 
the steps to be taken to secure the legacy ?” 

“ I did so upon my arrival.” 

“ Then, if you made application, it is for the 
court to decide on the justice of your claim.” 

“ I made no application,” said Yan. “The 
matter concerned Miss De Witt as much as 


314 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


myself, and she decided for me that I had no 
right to push the claim, and I did nothing.” 

Mr. Van Pieterzoon took off his spectacles. 

If I had my hat on I would take it off to you, 
but as I cannot do that, I take off my spectacles 
to you. You are a most remarkable girl.” 

‘‘And you are not angry that Yan has n 
helped you keep the legacy ?” 

“ Yot at all, not at all,” said Mynheer. 

“ But I am,” said Mejuffrouw. “ I am very 
angry. What was our American cousin invited 
here for, I should like to know ?” 

“ But I thought, dear Mejuffrouw, that you 
were so interested in the Orphanage — your own 
pet charity.” 

“ Am I not also my own myself ? I had de- 
termined in my own mind to make a perpetual 
subscription to the Orphanage equal ic my part 
of the legacy, and to ask all the relatives to do 
so ; but that is very different from being com- 
pelled to render it up from losing our just 
claims. Cousin Yan Silva Pieterzoon, I con- 
sider that you have treated us very shabbily.” 

“ I am very sorry,” Yan began, but as he 
spoke the serving- man brought in a legal-look- 
ing document sealed and tied with tape and 


A DELFT MANDARIN AND A KIRME88E. 315 


addressed to himself. He opened it wonder- 
ingly. It was the decision of the court that the 
appeal of Piet Yan Pieterzoon, as representing 
his family and in behalf of an American rela- 
tive lately returned, was allowed, and that the 
conditions on which the tenure of the legacy 
was held were also allowed to have been filled, 
and the legacy was continued. 

Mejuffrouw clapped her mittened hands with 
delight. ‘‘You are a Van Pieterzoon in spite 
of yourself,” she said. 

“Yes, but I do not understand who has done 
this,” said Yan, quite dazed. “ It says on ap- 
plication of Piet Yan Pieterzoon, but this paper 
is dated two weeks ago.” 

“ Yoorhelm Hoogstraten had power of attor- 
ney to act in my stead,” said Mynheer. 

“ But Mr. Hoogstraten was much opposed to 
me. It was he who set the regents against me.” 

“ That was when he thought that my Grand- 
nephew Dirk could be made to fulfil the condi- 
tions ; but Dirk has gone to the Dutch West 
Indies, and what is more, has married Jacoba 
Hoogstraten ; and so, though Yoorhelm hates 
him, he is a father still, and has no mind that 
Jacoba should lose her share of the legacy. It 


3L6 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


is all as it should be. The legacy is confirmed 
to us ; now we will see how those other regents 
treat me at the next board meeting, and in the 
mean time we will make up our subscription. 
Write it out, Nephew Piet. Say that we main- 
tain our family rights, but we make this dona- 
tion from pure free will.” 

And put me down, too, for anything which 
I may come in for by this paper,” said Van. 

That is all very well so far as you are con- 
cerned, young man,” said Mynheer, “but you 
cannot dispose of your mother’s portion, nor 
shall we allow her to do so for an Orphanage in 
which she cannot be personally interested. As 
trustee of the property I shall take pleasure in 
sending her little annuity each year. There will 
still be quite enough for the Orphanage.” 

Thus it was all arranged as Mejuffrouw wished, 
and though Van succeeded to no part of the 
legacy, he did not feel that his trip to Holland 
had been made in vain or his time wasted, for 
he had had the great pleasure in working for 
the Orphanage, of infusing young blood into 
that ancient institution, and inducing it to en- 
large its scope and adopt new methods, and he 
had made a true friend in Mejuffrouw ; and 


A DELFT MANDARIN AND A KIRMESSE. 317 


friendship is sometimes worth infinitely more 
than kinship, even when the latter brings an 
inheritance. 

Judging by practical and more selfish stan- 
dards, the time had been well employed, for he 
had earned the cost of his summer and had 
profited by a valuable course of lectures at the 
university. Besides the annuity, Piet Van 
Pieterzoon insisted on his carrying back with 
him some beautiful old Dutch silver as a pres- 
ent for his mother, and expressed himself as 
very proud of his American relative. As for 
Mejuffrouw, she had her father’ s medical library 
boxed up and sent to America for his use, and 
urged Winnie to choose anything in the house 
as a souvenir of her visit. Winnie modestly 
chose the porcelain mandarin spice chest, not 
telling Mejuffrouw that the reason she did so 
was for its resemblance to Mynheer Van Pieter- 
zoon. 

Winnie returned to Laren to pack her lug- 
gage for America. The days were growing 
short and chilly, the rain was colder, and the 
wind brought down great armfuls of russet 
leaves. It was time to think of home. Just 
before the final farewells there came one beauti- 


318 


wiTcn wmmE in Holland. 


ful autumnal day, in which they all attended a 
kirmesse or village fair. In many ways it was 
not unlike a French fair, with its merry-go- 
rounds and booths of itinerant mountebanks 
and puppet shows. There was a little trained 
dog that was put through many clever tricks 
by a French clown. Winnie was almost sure 
that she recognized the little creature even 
before it trotted in with a widow’s veil trailing 
from its head, and with a placard about its 
neck bearing the inscription : 


“ Mon mari est mort, 

Qiie c’est bien. 

Pour son repos, 

Et pour le mien.” 

‘‘ It is,” she cried — it is Desdemona !” and 
she flew around to the ‘‘ stage entrance” of the 
booth, to find that the clown was her old ac- 
quaintance, Zizi’s uncle. Zizi, he said, was 
married — a great rise in the world for her. Ah ! 
yes, Zizi had been very fortunate. She had 
married Monsieur Samier, the lion- tamer, and 
the old lioness had killed him within ten days 
of their marriage. It was heartrending, but 
there were consolations in religion, and his life 


A DELFT MANDARIN AND A KIRMESSE. 319 


was well insured. Zizi had sold the whole me- 
nagerie, and had taken the Samier children and 
gone to live in the old Pelerin Mansion in Paris. 
Her father had grown old and needed her care, 
and as concierge she had her rent free. The 
only mistake was in embarrassing herself with 
those stepchildren of hers, who might have 
gone on the stage as ballet girls ; but Zizi was 
always fond of educating little animals. 

AYinnie asked what had become of Othello, 
the great black poodle. Alas ! the legend which 
Desdemona tells is true. Like Zizi, they can 
both say : 

“ My husband is dead, and truth to tell, 

’Tis better for him and for me as well.” 

Winnie tried to believe that Desdemona recog- 
nized her, but the poodle turned its pink- 
rimmed eyes ux)on her with an unresponsive 
stare. 

‘‘ It is the way of the world, mademoiselle,” 
said the clown. I myself know what it is to 
be forgotten. Have I not lavished every kind- 
ness on that ungrateful one Zizi, and when her 
husband left her a rich widow, did she remem- 
ber me ? Did she say, ^ Zerns^ there is my old 
uncle, but for whom my husband would not 


320 


WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND, 


have died % ’ For if I had run a little faster when 
I was sent for the surgeon he might have been 
living now. Did she recognize this and give 
me a pension ? No more than that poodle. 
Ah, mademoiselle, take my word for it, there 
is no such thing as affection or gratitude or re- 
ward for good actions in this world. What 
does it matter ; we have still, as I said, the con- 
solations of a good conscience, or at least of a 
good appetite.’’ 

Winnie took leave of the old mountebank, 
and found that while chatting with him the 
audience had been dismissed, and Milly and 
Stacey, in seeking for her, had wandered away 
through the grove. It was some time before 
she found them, for they had given up their 
search, and had seated themselves on a little 
bench beside the road, where, shaded by the 
trees, they could watch the people as they 
strode by to and from the stoom tram. They 
were sure that Winnie would pass that way, 
and that they could not fail to see her, and then 
they became so much interested in their own 
conversation that Winnie passed by twice before 
they discovered her, and then it was really 
Winnie who found them. 


A DELFT MANDARIN AND A K1RMES8E. 321 


They were to separate the next day, for Stacey 
was going to the School of Naval Architecture, 
which had already opened. It seemed to him 
that the minutes of this their last day together 
sped away with incredible swiftness. He was 
strangely silent, and yet there were words form- 
ing themselves over and over in his brain, and 
nearly bursting from his lips — I love you, 
Milly ! Milly, I love you !” He could hardly 
choke them down, and he could think of noth- 
ing else. Milly chatted on for a time, and then 
finding that he did not seem to be paying atten- 
tion to what she was saying, she, too, was 
silent. Suddenly she exclaimed : 

‘ ‘ Look, Stacey, there is the old iDeasant who 
sold you your pipe at Marken. I wonder if he 
keeps a stock of them to peddle everywhere.” 

Stacey took out his x^ipe and looked at it 
moodily. I wish I had never taken ux) smok- 
ing,” he said. I believe I shall end u'p with 
having a tobacco heart. I had to give up sprint- 
ing at Cambridge because I was not quite 
sound.” 

Milly looked very anxious. ‘‘ Oh, Stacey,” 
she said, ‘ ‘ I wish you would give up smoking 
before it is too late. Won’t you, for my sake f ’ 


322 


WITGU WmmE IN HOLLAND. 


She blushed and corrected herself, “ I mean for 
your own sake, Stacey ; for, of course, I don’t 
hatter myself that 1 have any inhuence over 
you.” 

“No inhuence ! —well, rather. To prove 
whether you have or not, there is my meer- 
schaum and here is my brier, and when I get 
to Amsterdam I’ll send you every pipe I’ve 
got, and I’ll swear not to smoke again till you 
give the word, if you will only say that my 
living is of any interest to you.” 

The glad look in Milly’s face was unmistaka- 
ble. “ Any interest ! But I didn’t know that 
you cared to have me care.” 

“Don’t I? Why, Milly, you have been an 
inhuence for good in my life ever since I hrst 
knew you. Even after you threw me over at 
Shinnecock — and I have been raging angry with 
you for that — you didn’ t lose your inhuence, all 
the same. I determined that I would make a 
man of myself, and such a man as you would 
respect, so that you would see some day that 
you were mistaken in me — mistaken the right 
way, I mean. You will never lose your inhu^ 
ence over me, Milly, and it will always be for 
good ; no matter if — if — ” He did not hnish 


A DELFT MANDARIN AND A KIRMESSE. 323 


the sentence, for tlie Marken peasant in the 
balloon- shaped trousers and scarlet waistcoat 
approached them with a wheedling smile. He 
carried the same chain with the pierced pearls 
which he had offered to Stacey at Marken. He 
threw it over Milly’s neck with a little toss, 
and placed one end of it in Stacey’s hand. 

‘‘ Mynheer will not refuse me this time,” he 
said. 

Stacey took out his pocketbook. ‘‘ Do you 
like it, Milly 

“ It is exquisite ; but surely, Stacey, you do 
not mean it for me 

‘‘Oh, yes, he does,” the man replied, nodding 
and smiling. “ It is a betrothal chain, and very 
old. Many hearts liave been x)lighted and none 
broken by that chain ; it brings good luck. 
Give him one of the links to keep. I knew 
Mynheer would buy this chain of me as soon as 
I saw you sitting here with him. I told Myn- 
heer when I offered it to him before — ” 

‘ Be still, you old chatterbox,” said Stacey. 
“ That is, how much was it you said it was 
worth ?” 

“ Twenty florins, your excellency. See how 
becoming it is to the lady. When your excel- 


324 WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 

lency said you had no sweetheart, I knew it 
would not be so for long, and that you would 
want my chain to bind her fast. Good-by, 
your excellency. Good-by, my lady.” 

‘‘ Don’ t mind what the fool says,” said Stacey. 

“ No,” Milly replied slowly ; ‘‘ that is, if you 
don’t mean it so,” and then it was that Winnie 
found them most inopportunely, as Stacey told 
her very frankly. 

How so ?” Winnie asked obtusely. 

Well, you see,” Stacey rej)lied, I have 
been trying to propose to Milly for the last 
month, and if I have found it an embarrassing 
thing to do when quite alone with her, you may 
be sure it is no easier in your presence. How- 
ever, as I may not have another opportunity, 
here goes. In the presence of this witness (not 
desired, but not to be gotten rid of), will you, 
Milly Roseveldt, promise some day to be my 
wife r 


END OF WITCH WINNIE IN HOLLAND. 


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